Georgina Corrick's unbelievable performance is helping lead Great Britain to softball glory
Angels fans are used to Shohei Ohtani carrying his team on his back -- going out and pitching a masterpiece while delivering mammoth homers at the plate, too. Great Britain's women's softball team is getting a taste of that, too, thanks to their phenom, 23-year-old Georgina Corrick.
A superstar at the University of South Florida where she was named NFCA National Pitcher of the Year, Softball America Pitcher of the Year and a First Team All-American in her senior season after going 37-5 with a 0.51 ERA and 418 strikeouts in 274 1/3 IP in 2022 -- winning the first triple crown in NCAA softball history along the way -- Corrick is now making her mark on the international stage.
Representing No. 16-ranked Great Britain at the 2023 Women's Softball World Cup in Dublin, Corrick -- whose parents are English and who was born in Basingstoke -- helped take down No. 9 Australia, 2-0, in the first game of group play on Tuesday. Corrick gave up just three hits and struck out 7 in a complete-game shutout in the victory.
She topped herself in the next game. Facing No. 3-ranked Chinese Taipei the next day, Corrick not only struck out 10 batters in another complete-game shutout, but she supplied all of the runs in this one, too. Her two-run home run in the top of the third inning gave Great Britain its first ever victory against one of the game's very best teams.
“As a pitcher, you go into every game with a no-hitter until someone breaks it. We’re going on the same trail -- we came in with no expectations, because our standard is to be the best all the time," Corrick said after the game. "Beating some of the best teams [in the world] comes with being a high-performance team. If you want to be the best, you have to believe you can beat the best, and we came into this tournament trying to do that.”
She still wasn't done, though. Facing No. 17 Ireland, on Thursday, Corrick threw a nine-strikeout perfect game in Great Britain's 7-0 victory over the host nation. For those not keeping score at home, that's 26 strikeouts in 19 shutout innings with just two walks and a two-run homer to her name.
"I’m going to give everything I have to my girls, because I know they return the favor for me," Corrick said. "This is a passion project for me, it’s something that I love doing. As long as you’re winning, you’re not losing, and going out there and throwing the best game that I can is all I ever want to do, because I love them, and I can feel that’s reciprocated [in my heart]."
Great Britain's 3-0 start guarantees that they'll advance as one of the top two teams in Group A, and they'll look to improve upon their previous-best finish of 10th which came in 2006.
With Corrick on the mound and at the dish, anything is possible. As the team's new rallying cry says, "Why not GB?"
Great Britain will play Botswana and the United States to close out group play on Friday.