March 22, 2008
ATLANTA – Eddie Burns carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning, and Jeff Rowland had two hits, including a home run, to help No. 17 Georgia Tech (17-4, 5-3 ACC) defeat Duke (18-5, 3-5 ACC), 4-2, Saturday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Burns (3-1) earned his third win of the season by holding the Blue Devils to two runs, only one of which was earned, on four hits while recording four strikeouts in seven-plus innings.
Rowland, Derek Dietrich and Jay Dantzler each had two hits for the Yellow Jackets while Duke’s offense was led by Ryan McCurdy, who went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Brad Rulon picked up his first save of the season, and fifth of his career, by working out of a jam in the eighth inning and tossing a 1-2-3 ninth.
Rowland’s home run, his second of the year, led off the fifth inning for Tech after Duke had tied the game 1-1. He also started a two-run rally for Tech in the seventh, drawing a walk and coming around to score on an error, and Brad Feltes extended the lead to 4-1 with a sacrifice fly.
Duke got within a run in the eighth after Matt Williams was hit by a Burns pitch to lead off, went to third on Rowland’s dropped fly ball in center field and scored on Kyle Kreick’s single. But Rulon, who gave up the hit in relief of Burns, got a strikeout and a double play to end the threat and retired the Blue Devils in order in the ninth.
Charlie Blackmon was hit by a pitch and came around to score on a two-out, RBI double by Dietrich to get Georgia Tech on the board in the bottom of the first inning. Duke tied the game in the fifth after McCurdy broke up Burns’ no-hitter with a two-out infield single. He scored on an RBI single by Alex Hassan.
The Jackets and Blue Devils will conclude the three-game ACC series Sunday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m., with Tech’s RHP Zach Von Tersch (2-0, 1.88) squaring off against Duke’s RHP Grant Monroe (3-1, 3.00). The game can be found on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv) and WREK Radio (91.1 FM/www.wrek.org) while live stats for all Tech baseball games are available at Ramblinwreck.com.
