After winning game two 14-2 to force a deciding game three for the 2011 Athens Super Regional, Georgia got down big in the first inning against Baylor and could not muster enough offense to win game three losing 9–2 at Jack Turner Stadium on Sunday to end its season.

Georgia pitcher Morgan Montemayor started all three games for the Bulldogs against Baylor. Photo by Andrea Briscoe

In a sport where one pitcher can win you a series, Baylor’s Whitney Canion demonstrated just that by shutting down the potent Georgia offense while starting all three games, throwing two complete game victories, to beat Georgia in the best-of-three series and send Baylor to the Women’s College World Series.

In her two wins Canion (29-10) pitched 14 innings giving up nine hits and only three runs. In comparison, the two Baylor relievers that came in for Canion in game two, Liz Paul and Courtney Repka, pitched a combined 2.2 innings giving up 10 runs on nine hits.

“[Georgia] is an outstanding offensive team and an outstanding team all the way around,” said Baylor head coach Glenn Moore. “I mean holy cow [Georgia is the] toughest lineup ever to call pitches to. Just a phenomenal, phenomenal lineup and that says so much for the job that [Canion] did and you saw whenever we didn’t have [Canion] in the second game how ugly it got and I think if anyone doubts what Whitney Canion can do just compare the two games.”

“[Canion] was doing a great job of mixing her pitches and doing a real good job of hitting her spots,” said Georgia first baseman Kristyn Sandberg, “and when a pitcher can come out and hit her spots like she did tonight I think she is going to find success wherever she is.”

With the win the Lady Bears will make its second College World Series appearance under Moore, their last one being in 2007.

The Bulldogs had made it to back-to-back College World Series, their only appearances in school history, before losing to Baylor and ending their streak.

“I thought that Baylor did a great job [in game three] and Whitney Canion pitched a great game,” said Georgia head coach Lu Harris-Champer. “I am very proud of our team. I thought we fought hard today and I am incredibly proud of our seniors and the legacy they left on our program and really just second-to-none.”

Despite Canion’s dominance over the Bulldogs in game three, Georgia was able to get to her in game two who after throwing 114 pitches on Saturday was not as sharp and the Georgia batters showed no mercy on her and the rest of the Baylor pitching staff.

The Bulldogs started off the game the same way they started Saturdays by scoring first off a solo home run, this one by Ashley Razey in the second inning.

But unlike on Saturday, Georgia was able to add to its lead with its very next batter.Kristyn Sandberg who followed Razey’s home run with a no-doubter of her own to give Georgia an early 2-0 lead.

The very next inning Georgia was able to knock Canion out of the game with a two-run homer from Schlopy.

Canion’s two innings pitched was her shortest start all season.

With Canion out of the game the Georgia bats exploded for ten runs in the fourth off of Baylor’s relief pitcher Paul and Repka with the help of a Baylor error and two illegal pitches from Repka scoring two runs.

The inning was highlighted with a two-run triple by Hubbard a solo shot by Trout and a two-run homer from Wiggins.

The 10 runs in the inning was a season high and the five home runs in the game tied a season high for the Bulldogs.

Baylor did manage to get on the board in the bottom of the fourth off of reliever Sarah McCloud but it was all for not as Georgia won the game 14-2 to force a final game between the two clubs.

Unfortunately for Georgia, starting pitcher Morgan Montemayor, who started all three games in the series, and Canion switched roles the next game as Montemayor (27-5) followed in Canion’s shoes and pitched her shortest outing of the season in game three lasting only 0.2 of an inning, giving up five runs in the inning including a three-run homer to Baylor’s Kelsi Kettler while Canion returned to her dominant self.

Georgia began chipping away at the Lady Bear lead off of Sandberg’s bat who had an RBI double and a solo home run in the game but Baylor put a stamp on the game and the series with four runs in the last two innings.

To add injury to insult Canion hit her second home run of the series in the sixth on her way to the win and a date for the Women’s College World Series.