Feb. 22, 2008
ATLANTA – David Duncan tossed seven shutout innings while Chris House and Charlie Blackmon led the Yellow Jackets with three hits apiece as No. 25 Georgia Tech (1-0) defeated Youngstown State (0-1), 14-0, in the season opener Friday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Duncan (1-0) pitched an efficient seven innings, throwing just 80 pitches and yielding only two hits to the Penguins. He struck out six and walked two before Deck McGuire and Michael Hutts closed out the game with scoreless innings of work. The trio allowed just three singles and just one runner past first base in the game.
House and Blackmon both went 3-for-5 on the day, while Luke Murton, Jason Haniger and Jay Dantzler added two hits apiece. Dantzler drove in a game-high three runs, two of which came on his first career home run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The Jackets opened the bottom of the first inning with four-consecutive singles, the last of which, by Murton, plated House and freshman shortstop Derek Dietrich before a sacrifice fly by Tony Plagman gave Tech a 3-0 lead.
The score remained 3-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Tech added four unearned runs to push its lead to seven. With two outs and the bases loaded, Jeff Ussery’s drive to center field was botched by John Koehnlein to score Blackmon, Murton and Plagman before Dantzler drove in Ussery for the final run of the frame with a pinch-hit RBI single.
Plagman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Tech’s eighth run of the game with two outs in the eighth before Thomas Nichols drove in two runs on a triple to left field. Dantzler then scored Nichols with the team’s first home run of the season to cap the scoring for the Jackets.
Lucas Engle (0-1) took the loss for the Penguins, giving up six runs, only two of which were earned, on eight hits in 4.2 innings pitched.
The Jackets and Penguins will continue the series Saturday with a 2 p.m. game at Russ Chandler Stadium. Fans may follow along by watching ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv) or via live stats at Ramblinwreck.com.
