Jackets Beat Heels with Smith's Walk-Off

March 21, 2015

TECH STARTERS: Spingola/CF, Innis/LF, Johnson/DH, Murray/C, Gonzalez/3B, Smith/1B, Bailey/2B, Justus/SS, Peurifoy/RF, Gold/SP.

UNC STARTERS: Lassiter/LF, Ramirez/RF, Gahagan/1B, Bolt/CF, Warmouth/SS, Miller/DH, Dunbar/C, Sutherland/2B, Raburn/3B, Bukauskas/SP.

THE BASICS:
• Thomas Smith ripped a game-winning single down the left-field in the ninth as No. 21 Georgia Tech stormed back to beat No. 18 North Carolina, 6-5, in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday at Russ Chandler Stadium.
• Tech scored the game’s final six runs, including a pair of game-tying runs with two outs in the eighth and Smith’s first career walk-off hit in the ninth.
• The Yellow Jackets evened the series and improved to 16-6 overall and 5-3 in the ACC, while the Tar Heels slipped to 13-9, 4-4.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• North Carolina’s Alex Raburn launched a grand slam home run in the fourth inning that gave the Tar Heels a 5-0 lead.
• Tech pitchers combined to no-hit UNC the rest of the way, while the offense chipped away.
• The Yellow Jackets pushed across three in the sixth to get within striking distance, and Tech’s two-out rally in the eighth was kick-started by Connor Justus’s single.
• Ryan Peurifoy followed next was he smashed a triple off the wall in left and the game was tied when Daniel Spingola snuck a ground-rule double inside the left-field foul line.
• In the ninth, Kel Johnson drew a walk, Matt Gonzalez singled and Smith hammered a pitch from Trevor Kelley down the left-field line as the game-winner.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
• Tech is now out-scoring opponents 43-10 over the final two innings plus extras and has won three times via walk-off hits this season. Nine of the Jackets’ 16 wins have been come-from-behind victories.
• Daniel Spingola extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a game-tying RBI double in the eighth.
• Making his first start of the year, Peurifoy was 2-for-4 with a triple and a career-best three RBI.
• Gonzalez and Justus each chipped in two of the Jackets’ 11 hits.
• Zac Ryan picked up his fifth win (5-0) by tossing a 1-2-3 inning of relief in the ninth.
• Devin Stanton and Patrick Wiseman each combined to keep the Tar Heels at bay in relief of Brandon Gold.
• Gold was touched for his first runs as a starter, snapping a streak of 23 straight scoreless innings. He was on the hook for five runs and five hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
• The loss fell to Kelley (2-1), who tossed three innings in relief of J.B. Bukauskas and was charged with six hits and three runs.
• Including Friday’s 5-3 win by UNC, seven of the last eight games between Tech and Carolina have been decided by one or two runs.