March 19, 2008
ATLANTA – Charlie Blackmon homered and drove in two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to help No. 17 Georgia Tech (15-4) to a 7-6 victory over Mercer (9-10) Wednesday night at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Blackmon went 2-for-5 with four RBI to lead the Yellow Jacket offense while Jeff Rowland added two hits on the night.
Brad Rulon (3-0) picked up the win despite giving up the lead in the eighth inning. The senior yielded two runs on a two-out triple by John Dortch, but received the win after Blackmon hit a two-out single to plate Patrick Long and Chase Burnette in the bottom of the frame.
Chris Hicks earned his team-leading sixth save of the season by striking out John Moreland and forcing Tyler McCarty to hit into a double play to end the game.
Taylor Wood and Andrew Robinson both worked scoreless innings in relief of Yellow Jacket starter Brandon Cumpton, who held Mercer to four runs on nine hits in five innings.
Back-to-back run-scoring singles from Mike Armstrong and Moreland staked the Bears to a 2-0 lead with two outs in the top of the first inning, but the Jackets responded with a run in the bottom of the second and two more in the third inning to go ahead 3-2. Derek Dietrich worked a leadoff walk of Mercer starting pitcher David Harden in the second inning and came around to score on a double by Thomas Nichols. After Jay Dantzler was issued a one-out walk in the third inning, Blackmon pulled the second pitch he saw over the right field fence to give Tech the one-run lead.
Tech extended its lead to 4-2 in the fourth inning when Rowland singled, stole second base, and scored on an RBI single by Dantzler, but the Bears tied the game in the top of the fifth inning on a solo home run by Dortch and an RBI single by Armstrong.
Tony Plagman sent his fifth home run of the season over the centerfield wall to give Tech a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning, and the score held until the Bears plated two in the eighth.
Boone Webster (2-2) suffered the loss by giving up the two runs in the eighth inning to the Yellow Jackets.
Tech will look to extend its winning streak to three games this Friday when it hosts Duke in the first game of a three-game ACC series beginning at 6 p.m. The entire series can be found on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv) while live stats will be available at Ramblinwreck.com.
–GT–
