The No. 8 Georgia softball team found little resistance while beating Western Carolina 8-0 in five innings on Wednesday night at the Georgia Softball Stadium.

Georgia (34-8, 14-6 SEC) used a high-scoring third inning to give pitchers Sarah McCloud (14-2) and Christie Hamilton the lead they needed against the Catamounts (11-28), putting up seven of the eight Bulldog runs in the inning.

McCloud pitched three perfect innings to earn the win – not allowing a hit, walk or run – before being replaced by Hamilton at the start of the fourth. Hamilton turned in a good performance in her own right, allowing only two hits and no runs in two innings.

“We really just wanted to get both of our pitchers some work tonight and they did a good job,” said head coach Lu Harris-Champer. “I told [third baseman Alisa Goler] that I was excited for her because she really crushed that ball.”

“That ball” Goler crushed got the offense rolling in the third inning with a three-run shot far over the wall in right center field off of Catamount pitcher Katie King (5-13) to give Georgia a 3-0 lead. In one swing, Goler tied the Georgia single-season records for home runs (16), RBIs (32) and extra-base hits (65).

That same swing also tied the Georgia team record for home runs in a season at 60 home runs – after hitting just 26 in 2008.

Freshman outfielder Lisaira Daniels would follow up Goler with a RBI bunt single, followed by a two-RBI single by fellow freshman Ashley Pauly to push the score to 6-0. The seventh and final run of the third would come off the bat of center fielder Taylor Schlopy by way of another RBI single.

The last Bulldog run came in the final home half of the game, which was the bottom of the fourth inning due to the run rule, as catcher Kristyn Sandberg knocked in her 21st RBI of the year on a base hit to left field.

The win over Western Carolina was the 16th time that Georgia has won on a run rule this season.

Georgia now looks ahead to the final home SEC series of the season against No. 15 Tennessee (35-11-1, 11-8-1 SEC) this weekend.