OKLAHOMA CITY — Georgia continued its impressive run through the postseason by upsetting another team from the state of Florida.
The No. 16-seed Bulldogs beat eighth-seeded Florida State 5-4 on Thursday in the opening game of the 2016 Women’s College World Series.
Thursday’s win comes a week after Georgia (46-18) stunned two-time defending national champion Florida in the super regional round to advance to the WCWS.
Florida State (53-9) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when sophomore third baseman Jessica Warren blasted a two-run home run over the center field fence.
Georgia, though, tied the game with two unearned runs in the top of the second, a theme that would continue to haunt FSU — which committed a WCWS record-tying seven errors Thursday — throughout the contest.
The Bulldogs doubled their total in the third when freshman Alyssa DiCarlo and senior Tina Iosefa singled in consecutive runs.
The score remained the same until the bottom of the sixth, when Florida State junior Alex Powers — the ACC Player of the Year — hit a two-run homer to tie things back up, but then the error bug hurt the Seminoles again in the top of the seventh.
Georgia sophomore Corti Emanuel reached first base on an error, then stole second base and immediately advanced to third when FSU catcher Sydney Broderick overthrew her second baseman.
Emanuel scored five pitchers later when DiCarlo grounded out.
Senior Chelsea Wilkinson threw a complete game for Georgia and improved her record to 28-7 for the season.
Georgia advances to face either UCLA or Auburn at 7 p.m. Friday. The Bruins and Tigers play later Thursday.
–This story was written by SEC Country’s Jason Kersey