April 8, 2007
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Gus Menendez’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth plated Roger Tomas from second base to give Miami (20-14, 7-8 ACC) the ACC series victory with an 8-7 win over Georgia Tech (21-13, 9-6 ACC) Sunday afternoon at Mark Light Field.
With the loss, the Jackets dropped their first ACC series since the first weekend of conference play, and currently stand third in the Coastal Division in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.
Tomas and Yonder Alonso earned back-to-back walks off Yellow Jacket reliever Matt Wieters to begin the inning before Menendez sent the first pitch that he saw to left field for Miami’s second-straight last-inning win over the Jackets. Wieters (1-2), who was pitching his second inning in relief after catching the first 27 innings of the series, entered in the bottom of the eighth and retired three straight batters before walking Tomas to lead off the ninth. He finished with three strikeouts in 1.1 innings of work.
Danny Payne earned a leadoff walk to start the game, moved to second on a passed ball, advance to third on a groundout by Luke Murton and scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael Fisher to give the Yellow Jackets an early 1-0 lead.
Tech added another run in the second when Wally Crancer led off with a single, stole second base and came around to score on an RBI double by Tony Plagman, pushing the score to 2-0 in favor of the Jackets.
A balk by Hurricane starter Enrique Garcia plated Fisher to extend the Jackets’ lead to three runs in the third inning after the Yellow Jacket shortstop reached on a two-out single, stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error by Miami catcher Jason Hagerty.
Patrick Long was issued a one-out walk and moved to second on another balk by Garcia before scoring on an RBI single by Jeff Ussery to push the score to 4-0 in the top of the fourth inning.
After Yellow Jacket starter Ryan Turner held Miami to just four hits through the first four innings, the Hurricanes exploded for three runs on three hits, including an RBI double by Blake Tekotte and a two-run home run by Yonder Alonso, in the bottom of the fifth to pull within one run at 4-3.
Turner tossed 5.2 innings and gave up four runs on nine hits while striking out five, but did not figure into the decision.
The Jackets responded with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to push their lead to 6-3. An RBI single by Chris House plated Plagman, who walked to lead off the inning and moved to third on a single by Long and an error by Tekotte before Long scored on a sacrifice fly by Payne.
After Ryan Jackson pulled the `Canes to 6-4 with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, Wieters pushed his seventh home run of the season down the left field line to lead off the seventh, extending Tech’s lead back to three runs.
Miami tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when Joe Melendez hit his first home run of the season, a three-run shot, to even the score at 7-7.
Gil (3-0) earned the win for Miami, retiring the only two batters he faced in the ninth.
The Jackets will return to action next weekend when they travel to Charlottesville to face the University of Virginia in a three-game series beginning Friday at 7 p.m. at the UVa Baseball Stadium.
