April 3, 2015
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TECH STARTERS: Spingola/CF, Peurifoy/RF, Gonzalez/3B, Murray/DH, Smith/1B, Justus/SS, Bailey/2B, Gold/3B, Pabst/C, King/SP.
VT STARTERS: Jenco/CF, Cooper/RF, Perez/2B, Payne/3B, Hayden/1B, Sciretta/DH, Wernicki/LF, Mogg/C, Surum/SS, Keselica/SP.
THE BASICS:
· Georgia Tech scored the game’s final nine runs and rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the seventh to beat Virginia Tech, 11-5, Friday night in the opener of an ACC series at English Field in Blacksburg.
· Connor Justus and Matt Gonzalez each had three hits and combined for five RBI to pace the Yellow Jackets in their third straight road win.
· Tech improved to 20-10 overall and 6-7 in the ACC, while the Hokies fell to 16-15, 6-7.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
· Gonzalez triggered the Yellow Jackets’ three-run seventh that tied the game at 5-5, and then in the eighth, drove in the go-ahead run with his grounder to second that scored Blake Jackson, who led off the inning with a walk.
· Georgia Tech rattled Virginia Tech’s bullpen in the seventh with four hits — three doubles — to pull even. Daniel Spingola led off with a double and scored two batters later when Gonzalez ripped a two-bagger to left. A.J. Murray followed with an RBI single and the game was tied when Justus hammered his second of two doubles to left.
· Tech tacked on five runs of insurance in the ninth — highlighted by Spingola’s two-run triple down the right-field line — to slam the door on any Hokie comeback.
· After the Yellow Jackets jumped out to the 2-0 lead in the second, the Hokies chipped away with a run in the third another in the fourth before Brendan Hayden’s go-ahead, three-run homer in the fifth.
· Reliever Matthew Gorst pitched a shutout over his 1.2 hitless innings on the mound with one walk and two strikeouts and would earn the win (2-2).
· The loss fell to Hokie reliever Sean Kennedy (1-3).
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
· Georgia Tech out-scored Virginia Tech 6-0 in the eighth and ninth. For the season, the Jackets are out-scoring opponents 56-12 over the final two innings plus extras.
· Tech’s 2-0 lead in the second marked the first time that starter Jonathan King had pitched with a lead since his win over Indiana State on Feb. 27.
· Pabst, who doubled twice and moved the go-ahead run into position with a sac bunt in the eighth, stretched his hitting streak to five games. He is 9-for-17 (.529) in the streak with three doubles and four RBI.
· Gonzalez was 3-for-5 tonight with three RBI. Over Tech’s last three games, he’s 8-for-14 with a pair of doubles, a home run and eight RBI.
· Spingola was 2-for-4 to extend his reached-base streak to 21 games. His ninth-inning triple was the first of the year.
· Justus recorded his first career game with two doubles as he one-hopped the wall in left and scored in the second inning, and drove in the game-tying run with a two-bagger in the seventh.
· Wade Bailey extended his hitting streak to nine games with a single in the fourth.
· Of Tech’s 15 hits, seven were for extra-bases, including six doubles.
· Gorst earned the win in relief. The sophomore has allowed just one hit and no runs over his last five appearances.
QUOTEABLE:
“We’ve struggled getting some of these Friday night wins, and it’s always a good way to start a road series. King really made one bad pitch. He hung a curveball to Hayden and he did a good job of hitting it out. But he battled back and got a zero on the board in the next inning to keep the deficit manageable. And late in the game, we executed our offense beautifully. We had some huge hits and Gorst pitched two good innings.
— Head Coach Danny Hall
UP NEXT: The Yellow Jackets and Hokies continue the series Saturday at 2 p.m. The game can be heard live on WREK 91.1 FM Atlanta. Live audio can also be streamed from RamblinWreck.com and via WREK on the TuneIn app.
