March 24, 2016
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — All that’s good is Gold (and Gorst). Juniors Brandon Gold and Matthew Gorst shut down No. 3 North Carolina as the 21st-ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets took a 3-2 win Thursday night at Boshamer Stadium.
Georgia Tech (17-4, 4-3 ACC) snapped a nine-game ACC road losing streak with the victory. The Yellow Jackets peppered North Carolina (18-3, 5-2 ACC) ace Zac Gallen for all three runs on seven hits.
Gold (3-1) allowed two runs on six hits with five strikeouts in 7.1 innings of work. Gorst came on and effectively shut the door on the Heels, pitching 1.2 innings of scoreless relief for his fifth save of the season.
THE LINEUPS
Georgia Tech — Wade Bailey 2B, Connor Justus SS, Matt Gonzalez LF, Kel Johnson RF, Joey Bart DH, Trevor Craport 3B, Tristin English 1B, Ryan Peurifoy CF, Arden Pabst C, Brandon Gold P
North Carolina — Brian Miller, 1B, Adam Pate RF, Kyle Datres 3B, Tyler Ramirez CF, Tyler Lynn LF, Logan Warmoth SS, Eli Sutherland 2B, Brandon Riley DH, Cody Roberts C, Zac Gallen P
THE BASICS
• Thursday was the fifth straight game Georgia Tech has used the same batting lineup. Tech is 5-0 in those games.
• Georgia Tech snapped its nine-game ACC road losing streak, posting its first ACC road win since April 5, 2015.
• Georgia Tech is 18-13 in its last 31 games against the ACC’s member schools on Tobacco Road.
• Tech now leads the series 74-59 with a 28-25 mark in Chapel Hill.
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Brandon Gold allowed his first baserunners in the 3rd. After recording two hits, the Tar Heels took a 1-0 lead on Adam Pate’s RBI sacrifice bunt.
• After mustering three hits through the first four innings, the Yellow Jackets tagged Zac Gallen for five hits in the 5th. Arguably the biggest at bat of the inning was that of Arden Pabst who fought off 11 pitches and ultimately got a single to keep the inning alive. With the bases loaded, Connor Justus tied the game at 1-1 with an infield RBI single.
• Two batters later, Kel Johnson’s infield single scored Wade Bailey and a throwing error by Eli Sutherland allowed Justus to score for a 3-1 lead.
• UNC got one run back in the 7th as Brandon Riley scored Logan Warmoth with an RBI single to right field.
QUOTE BOARD
“Brandon threw great for us tonight. We played terrific defense behind him. (Matthew) Gorst came in and got five big outs. I’m proud of the way we played. North Carolina is a very good team and we beat a really good pitcher (Zac Gallen) tonight.” — Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall on the Jackets’ 3-2 win over No. 3 UNC
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Arden Pabst and Kel Johnson led the Yellow Jackets with two hits each.
• Johnson extended his hit streak to a career-best 16 games.
• Senior Matt Gonzalez, who is the nation’s active career leader with 243 hits, extended his hit streak to 8 games, going 1-for-4.
• Freshman Tristin English extended his hit career-best hit streak to 6 games, going 1-for-4.
• Junior Connor Justus also went 1-for-4 with an RBI to extend his hit streak to 6 games.
• Georgia Tech turned its NCAA-leading 37th double play Thursday night.
• Tech has now recorded 10+ hits in six straight games.
• All 10 of Georgia Tech’s hits were singles.
• DH Joey Bart was the only Tech starter without a hit Thursday night.
• Matt Gorst recorded his fifth save of the season and owns a 10:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 14.1 innings this season.
UP NEXT
Game 2 of the top-25 ACC Coastal Division showdown is set for 5 p.m. ET on Friday (note time change from previous 6 p.m. start). The game will be available on ESPN3 and WREK 91.1 FM.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on Twitter (@GTBaseball), Facebook (facebook.com/GTbaseball) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.
