Ellis’ historic walk-off grand-slam homer lifts Arkansas past Georgia in SEC Tournament
Razorbacks advance to face Tennessee in SEC Tournament quarterfinals
ATHENS, Ga. — Arkansas senior first baseman Bri Ellis made history by hitting a walk-off grand slam to set the Arkansas single-season home run and RBI records while leading the Razorbacks to a 5-1 win over Georgia on Wednesday afternoon at Jack Turner Stadium during the second day of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Singles by Kennedy Miller and Reagan Johnson and a walk by Raigan Kramer loaded the bases and set the stage for Ellis, who stepped to the plate with one out in the bottom of ...
ATHENS, Ga. — Arkansas senior first baseman Bri Ellis made history by hitting a walk-off grand slam to set the Arkansas single-season home run and RBI records while leading the Razorbacks to a 5-1 win over Georgia on Wednesday afternoon at Jack Turner Stadium during the second day of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Singles by Kennedy Miller and Reagan Johnson and a walk by Raigan Kramer loaded the bases and set the stage for Ellis, who stepped to the plate with one out in the bottom of the seventh, having walked in her previous six at-bats. After taking the first pitch for a ball from Georgia pitcher Randi Roelling, Ellis smashed a 1-0 pitch 258 feet over the wall in left field for a walk-off grand slam.
With the walk-off round-tripper, Ellis passed Braxton Burnside (25, 2021) for her program-record 26th home run of the season and drove in her 69th, 70th, 71st and 72nd runs of the year to set the single-season RBI record that was previously held by Danielle Gibson Whorton (2022, 70). Ellis’ 26th homer of the season also tied the single-season SEC record set by Mia Davidson (Mississippi State) and Bailey Hemphill (Alabama) in 2019.
In addition to Ellis making history, Arkansas earned its first SEC Tournament win since 2022.
Georgia took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, courtesy of an RBI single from Marissa Miller.
Courtney Day then tied the game and broke up a no-hitter by Roelling with a solo home run off the Bulldogs’ practice facility in left-center field in the bottom of the fifth to provide the rest of the scoring for Arkansas.
Kennedy Miller led the Hogs in the hit column with a 2-for-3 day. Ellis hit a grand-slam homer, Day homered, Johnson singled ands cored once and Kramer walked twice for the Razorbacks (39-11).
Robyn Herron earned the win in relief to improve to 16-5 by tossing three shutout innings, during which she retired nine of her 10 batters faced and registered three strikeouts.
Payton Burnham also turned in a quality start by allowing just a run on five hits and a walk with two punchouts in her four innings pitched.
Roelling went the distance and took the loss for Georgia (31-20), falling to 9-8 on the season. The left-handed sophomore allowed five runs on five hits and five walks.
The Razorbacks were slated to meet Tennessee this afternoon.
