February 20, 1999

TAMPA, Fla. – The Notre Dame softball team kicked off its 1999 season with two wins over South Florida (2-0) and Georgia Tech (6-4) at the Gladstones Tournament Friday night. The Irish moved to 2-0 for the Season and join Tennessee as the only undefeated teams after day one of the six-team tournament.

In the first game of the night, the Irish upset sixth-ranked South Florida by a 2-0 margin. Irish freshman Jarrah Myers (Carbondale, Kan.) in her first collegiate at bat, launched a home run over the fence in left-center to score and drive in the winning run in the bottom of the second inning. Notre Dame added another run in the fifth-inning after senior Amy Laboe (Lakewood, Calif.) picked up the win for the Irish, limiting the Bulls to just four hits, with a complete game performance.

Against Georgia Tech, Notre Dame got another outstanding pitching performance out of sophomore Jennifer Sharron (Augora Hill, Calif.), who struck out a career-best ten batters in the team’s 6-4 victory. With the score 4-2 in the top of the sixth, Notre Dame’s Kris McCleary (Westerville, Ohio) walked and later scored the winning run on an RBI-single by sophomore Lizzy Lemire (Irvine, Calif.). Georgia Tech made it close in the bottom of the sixth by scoring two runs and later threatened the bottom of the seventh with runners on first and second and one out. Sharron, however, got Georgia Tech’s Mikki Deal to strikeout and Ellen Styer to ground out to second to end the game at 6-4 in favor of the Irish.

The Irish face Miami of Ohio State at noon and Tennessee at 8 p.m. on Saturday before concluding tournament play with a Sunday morning match against Kansas.