May 26, 2006
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Designated hitter Matt Wieters knocked in two runs with a pair of hits to lead Georgia Tech to a 7-4 win over Miami in an elimination game of the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
The win earned Tech a rematch with Clemson in Saturday’s second semifinal game. Clemson beat the Yellow Jackets on Thursday night with a walk-off 3-2 win on a pinch-hit single by Ben Hall.
Georgia Tech (44-15) scored in three of the first four innings to open up a 5-2 lead after four innings. Wieters drove in the first two runs, stroking a single in the first inning and then matching Wally Crancer’s double in the left field gap with his own double to the same gap in the third. The Yellow Jackets had five doubles and a triple among their 11 hits.
Tech put together a three-run fourth inning including what proved to be the winning run. A walk, single and double by Andy Hawranick brought home one run. A ground out produced the second and Steven Blackwood’s single scored the third run of the inning.
The Yellow Jackets added a pair of insurance runs with scores in the seventh and eighth innings to pad their lead.
Miami (36-21) matched Tech’s first and third inning runs and tacked on a pair of runs in the fifth inning on three successive hits, including a double by Jemile Weeks, one of four hits by Weeks in the game.
The Hurricanes had chances in each of the final four innings, collecting six hits and putting two runners on base in three of the four innings. But four Tech relievers kept Miami from pushing across any more runs. The closest the Canes came to scoring was in the sixth inning when Dennis Raben was thrown out at home on a throw from right fielder Wally Crancer to catcher Hawranick.
Blackwood saved another potential Miami run when he made a diving catch in center field to end the seventh inning. The Canes had the potential tying run at bat in the ninth inning, but John Jay flew out to deep centerfield and clean-up hitter Danny Valencia was thrown out on a hard smash into the hole by shortstop Michael Fisher.
