Softball games are often decided by extremely slim margins, and when two evenly matched teams face off, fundamentals can often play an important role in determining the outcome.

Unfortunately for the Georgetown softball team (12-16, 2-1 Big East), this was the case on a gloomy Wednesday afternoon, when sloppy defense and pitching contributed to a 5-3 loss to Drexel (9-8, 1-1 Colonial Athletic Association) at the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy in Washington, D.C.

“We need to do a better job playing cleanly. We gave runs away. We’re not hitting in clutch situations with runners on base. We outhit them, but our hits weren’t very timely, so overall, I don’t think we played a very good game,” Head Coach Pat Conlan said.

In the loss, sophomore center fielder Hannah Ramsey led the Hoyas, submitting perhaps the best performance of her career thus far in a losing effort. Ramsey hit two solo home runs, the first two of her career, and also made a sensational catch in the top of the sixth inning to save multiple runs.

Drexel scored the first run of the game in the top of the second when freshman designated player Alyssa Williamson hit a home run off of Georgetown’s senior starting pitcher Megan Hyson. Hyson took the loss to drop to 9-6 on the season.

The Hoyas struck back in the bottom of the inning. Sophomore third baseman Alessandra Gargicevich-Almeida hit a triple into the left field corner. Sophomore right fielder Delaney Osterday drove Gargicevich-Almeida in with a hard ground ball single to left field to put a run on the board for Georgetown.
In the top of the third inning, sloppy defense cost Georgetown when Drexel’s sophomore first baseman Vanessa Lightfoot reached on an error with two outs. After Lightfoot stole second base, sophomore right fielder Baeley Reed hit a sharp line drive single to right field to regain Drexel’s lead.

The Dragons continued their offensive onslaught in the top of the fifth inning when Lightfoot hit an RBI single. After Georgetown’s senior pitcher Lauren O’Leary relieved Hyson in the circle, Reed’s blooper dropped in shallow right field before taking an odd bounce away from Osterday, scoring another run for Drexel and extending its lead to 4-1.

Ramsey led off the bottom of the fifth with her first home run, a blistering line drive to left-center field.“I was just really seeing the ball well. I wasn’t thinking and just trusted myself to do what I’ve been practicing doing my whole life,” Ramsey said.

In the top of the sixth inning, amid a slight drizzle, Drexel mounted another rally, scoring a run to extend its lead to 5-2 before loading the bases with one out. Georgetown freshman Avery Gheer relieved O’Leary, but the first batter she faced, Drexel’s Lightfoot, hit a hard line drive to left-center field.

It appeared that it was going to be an extra base hit that could have driven in two or three runs, but Ramsey came out of nowhere to make a spectacular diving catch at full extension. Georgetown was able to complete the double play when Drexel’s runner on third base, expecting the ball to drop in for a hit, did not tag up.

“I just saw it off the bat,” Ramsey said. “I got a really good read, and I just knew that I had to track that ball down, otherwise it would get to the fence and a lot of runs would score, so I just gave it everything I had to try and make that play.”

Despite the potential momentum swing, Georgetown was not able to mount a late comeback. Ramsey’s seventh-inning home run, which barely stayed inside the left field foul pole, was the only run that the Hoyas scored in the final two innings. The game finished with a score of 5-3 in Drexel’s favor.
Georgetown will look to get back on track this weekend when it hosts Big East rival Creighton (14-6, 1-2 Big East) for a three-game series.

“[The Bluejays] always have a good team. They’ve got a nice pitching staff and a couple of good hitters in their lineup,” Conlan said. “Right now, we can’t even worry about what another team is going to do, we have to focus on trying to clean up our game.”

The first pitch of the first game of the series will be thrown at noon Saturday. The second game will start immediately after the first, and the final game of the series will be at 11 a.m. on Sunday. All three games will be played at Guy Mason Field.