May 3, 2013
THE FLATS – No. 23 Georgia Tech rallied with four runs in the sixth inning to tie the game, but Coastal Carolina pushed across three runs over the final three innings to win 7-4 and earn a split in Friday’s doubleheader at Russ Chandler Stadium.
After the Yellow Jackets claimed a 4-2 victory in Friday’s series opener behind eight shutout innings from Buck Farmer, the visitors got five strong innings from starter Seth Lamando to help them improve to 28-18 overall. Tech slipped to 29-17.
With inclement weather in the forecast throughout the weekend, please stay tuned to www.RamblinWreck.com and the team’s official Twitter account (@GT_Baseball) for updates on the series finale, which tentatively remains at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Lamando took a no-hitter into the sixth inning while his offense opened a 1-0 lead in the first and expanded the margin to 4-0 in the fifth as two Tech errors led to three unearned runs in the frame.
But the Jackets finally got the bats going in the sixth after Mitch Earnest led off by reaching second on a two-base error. Kyle Wren broke up the no-hitter with a bunt single up the third-base line and Sam Dove followed in the next at-bat with an RBI fielder’s choice to make it 4-1.
Dove’s RBI ended Lamando’s day and the starter watched from the dugout as Daniel Palka cleared the bases with a two-run triple that found the deep right-field corner. Zane Evans extended his hitting streak to eight games with a game-tying single to center.
Ryan Connolly came on to kill the Jacket rally in the sixth, then worked around trouble in the seventh as Tech came up empty after loading the bases. Connolly allowed two hits over four scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory (4-3) for the Chanticleers.
A Tech error in the eighth opened the door for Coastal to push across the go-ahead run as Colin Hering reached on a lead-off double after the Jackets dropped a foul pop-up earlier in the at-bat. Hering moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on pinch-hit RBI single from Luke Willis.
Another defensive miscue in the ninth yielded two more CCU runs that padded the lead.
Jonathan King was on the hook for the go-ahead run and absorbed the tough-luck loss (4-4). The freshman lefty pitched three innings in relief of starter Dusty Isaacs, who fanned seven over 4.1 innings, and King allowed just an unearned run on four hits.
Jake Kane and Alex Buccilli each drove in a pair of runs for the Chanticleers.
