Feb. 27, 2015
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TECH STARTERS: Spingola/CF, Smith/1B, Johnson/RF, Murray/DH, Gonzalez/LF, Gold/3B, Bailey/2B, Pabst/C, Justus/SS, King/SP.
ISU STARTERS: Curry/CF, Hannahs/2B, Young/3B, Owen/DH, Hayes/RF, Friis/SS, Zahn/1B, Moore/C, McClain/LF, Degano/SP.
THE BASICS:
• Offense was at a premium on a chilly evening in Atlanta and A.J. Murray’s solo home run was the only scoring as Georgia Tech beat Indiana State, 1-0, in the opener of a three-game series at Russ Chandler Stadium.
• Three Tech pitchers combined for the two-hit shutout of the Sycamores as junior LHP Jonathan King recorded his 10th career win.
• The victory improved the Yellow Jackets to 6-3, while the Sycamores fell to 3-4.
• The game was completed in just two hours and 17 minutes.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
• Murray’s third home run of the season gave the Yellow Jackets a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth and would stand as Tech’s third game-winning home run this season.
• Before Murray’s homer, each starting pitcher had faced the minimum through four-and-half innings.
• Bidding for his 10th career win, King tossed a one-hit shutout over 6.1 innings with one walk and four strikeouts. He improved to 2-0 this season and 10-5 in his career.
• Sophomore Matthew Gorst entered in relief of King with one on and one out in the seventh and rolled a grounder for the second out and got pinch-hitter Andy DeJesus looking to keep the 1-0 lead secure.
• Gorst fired 2.2 innings of relief with three punchouts and Zac Ryan recorded the game’s final out to nail down his second save.
• Ryan worked a line-out to left from pinch-hitter Brian Romero, which stranded a pair of runners on base. It was the only time in the game either team has multiple runners on base.
• The 1-0 victory is Tech’s first 1-0 win since beating NC State in Raleigh last April 25.
• It’s the first two-hitter thrown by the Jackets since Josh Heddinger went the distance in a 5-0 win over No. 2 Vanderbilt in the 2013 NCAA Nashville Regional.
• Murray finished the night 2-for-3 with a double, while Matt Gonzalez’s single was Tech’s other hit. Arden Pabst drew a pair of walks.
• Pabst also threw out his eighth base-runner in 10 attempts against the sophomore catcher this season. His 80 percent caught-stealing percentage leads the ACC.
• The tough-luck loss fell to Jeff Degano (2-1), who last weekend was the winning pitcher in the team’s 8-1 victory over No. 1 Vanderbilt. He fanned six over seven innings, allowing three hits and one run.
QUOTEABLE:
• “Outstanding work by our guys and I thought that was King’s best outing of the year. Gorst came in and got some big outs for us and then Ryan comes on, falls behind 3-0 in the count and is able to get back in it and then finish him off. But thankful to get out of here with a 1-0 win on Murray’s home run.”
— Head Coach Danny Hall
UP NEXT:
Tech and Indiana State continue their three-game series Saturday at 2 p.m.
