BLACKSBURG – In only her second collegiate appearance, freshman pitcher Kristin Graham hurled five shutout innings to keep a powerful Georgia Tech offense off balance, and then picked up the game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Virginia Tech softball team to an exciting 3-2 win Sunday afternoon at Tech Softball Park.

Georgia Tech, which won both games of a doubleheader Saturday by scoring a combined 21 runs, was kept at bat by freshman from the third inning on. The Yellow Jackets scored two runs in the second inning off Tech starter Kenzie Roark.

The Hokies battled back to tie it up with an odd play in the third inning. Amber Walker reached on an error and was pinch run for by Kelsey Hensel. Hensel eventually scored on Charisse Mariconda’s single to right field. After Jessica Everhart drew a walk, Whitney Davis eventually came up with two outs and the bases loaded. Davis struck out, but Tech catcher Jessica Weaver dropped the ball and Davis took off for first base. Weaver hesitated, and instead of stepping on home for the force out, she opted to throw to first base and Davis beat the throw, allowing Erin Ota to score.

That tied the game up and Graham battled through several jams to give the Hokies a chance in the bottom of the seventh inning. Ota led off the inning with a double to the gap. Mariconda then blooped a single to shallow right-center field. Head coach Scot Thomas elected to try to win it there and sent Ota, but a strong throw from Jessica Sinclair got her out by a step. On the throw, Mariconda took second base, and the Jackets chose to intentionally walk Everhart to set up the force play. Up stepped Graham and the Warner Robins, Ga., native laced a 1-2 pitch back up the middle and just out of the reach of a diving Jen Yee at second base. Mariconda was off and running, and this time the throw was a smidge late and Mariconda slid in for the winning run.

Graham was the hero, but she got plenty of help. Mariconda had two hits and an RBI while Jenna Rhodes, Ota, Everhart and Graham each had one. Roark got the start and went two innings. She allowed two runs on three hits with two walks and a strikeout. Graham (W, 1-0) threw five shutout innings, allowing just three hits and a walk while she struck out two.

Tech will be back in action on Tuesday, hosting Radford in a 5 o’clock doubleheader.