April 3, 2005
ATLANTA – Tyler Greene hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high eight runs, and Jeremy Slayden had four hits to lead No. 1 Georgia Tech (23-6, 13-2 ACC) to a 24-4 win over visiting Maryland (14-16, 4-11) on Sunday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium.
The Yellow Jackets won their 12th consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference weekend series and improved to 29-2 in their last 31 regular season ACC games. Tech has never lost a series to Maryland since the ACC adopted the current three-game weekend format for the 1990 season.
The 20-run margin of victory was Tech’s largest in an ACC game since a 27-4 win over Virginia on March 7, 1998.
Greene went 3-for-5 with a career-best eight RBI, hitting a three-run double in the second inning, a grand slam in the third, and a RBI single in the fifth before being removed from the game. Slayden finished 4-for-5 with two RBI.
Matt Wieters went 3-for-3 to raise his average in ACC games to .646 (31-for-48). Wes Hodges and Any Hawranick each had three hits and three RBI. Jake Hall had three RBI and scored three runs.
Tech starter Blake Wood improved to 5-0, holding the Terrapins to two runs on eight hits in six innings. He struck out five and did not issue a walk.
The Yellow Jackets built an 11-0 lead through the first three innings. A RBI double from Wes Hodges opened the scoring in the first inning before the Yellow Jackets batted around and scored six runs, all after two outs, in the second inning. Greene cleared the bases with a three-run double, Slayden had a two-run single and Steven Blackwood added a RBI single.
Greene’s grand slam, his third in six home runs in 2005, made the score 11-0 in the third inning.
A solo home run from Truan Mehl, his first of the year, and a RBI groundout from Nick Jowers pulled the Terrapins to within 11-1 after four and a half innings, but Tech responded with five runs in the bottom of the fifth to make the score 16-2. The Yellow Jackets batted around for the third time, including a two-run double from Andy Hawranick, a two-run single from Jake Hall and a RBI single by Greene.
The Yellow Jackets added six more runs in the sixth, extending the lead 22-2. Hodges hit a solo home run, his eighth of the year, Michael Fisher had a two-run double and Jeff Kindel added a RBI single as Tech batted around for the fourth time in six innings.
A RBI single from Hawranick made the score 23-2 in the seventh inning.
Maryland scored two runs in the eighth, including a RBI double from Matt Maropis, and Tech’s Ryan Stanley had a RBI single in the bottom of the inning to provide the final 24-4 margin.
Maryland starter Brett Cecil (1-1), one of six Terrapin pitchers, was charged with the loss after allowing seven run in 1.2 innings.
Georgia Tech visits Auburn on Tuesday at 8 p.m. (EDT), and the game will be televised by CSS.
