May 16, 2008
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Tony Plagman drove in four runs on three hits and Luke Murton and Brad Feltes added three hits apiece as No. 25 Georgia Tech (37-17, 15-14 ACC) evened the weekend series at Virginia (36-18, 15-14) with a 14-8 win Friday night at Davenport Field.
With the victory, the Yellow Jackets moved into a tie with Virginia for fifth place in the ACC Baseball standings, and the two teams will play the rubber game Saturday to break the tie. First pitch for Saturday’s game is at 12 p.m., with Zach Von Tersch taking the mound for the Yellow Jackets.
Friday’s game belonged to the Yellow Jacket hitters, who pounded out 14 runs on 19 hits, including five doubles, two triples and home run. Plagman went 3-for-5 with a two-run double, RBI triple and solo home run to lead the Yellow Jacket offense.
Virginia scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second when Phil Gosselin was hit by a pitch from Yellow Jacket starter Eddie Burns, stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Tyler Cannon.
Burns hit three batters in the game to raise his career total to 37, which set a new record for most in a career by a Yellow Jacket pitcher, previously held by Chuck Crowder. Burns (7-4) limited Virginia to five runs on seven hits to earn his seventh win of the season.
Tech answered with three runs in the top of the third on an RBI double by Murton and Plagman’s two-run double. Murton’s double was his team-leading 24th of the season, which stands just three shy of tying the single-season record in Tech history. The Yellow Jacket junior went 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored in the game.
The Cavaliers tied the game in the bottom of the third inning on a two-run home run by Jeremy Farrell, but Tech scored four in the top of the fourth to take a 7-3 lead. Jason Garofalo reached on a leadoff single, moved to second on a balk by Virginia starter Pat McAnaney, advanced to third on a single by Jay Dantzler and scored on a sacrifice fly by Murton. Derek Dietrich was then hit by a pitch to move Dantzler to second base, and both runners scored on a two-run double by Feltes. Plagman followed with a triple for the Jackets’ final run of the frame.
Feltes finished 3-for-6 with three RBI and two runs scored.
After a solo home run from Franco Valdes and a run-scoring single by Greg Miclat pulled Virginia to within two runs of the Jackets in the bottom of the fourth inning, Tech plated four in the sixth to put the game out of reach. Dietrich, Feltes, Jason Haniger and Chris House all had run-scoring hits in the inning.
Haniger, Dantzler and Charlie Blackmon finished with two hits apiece.
Virginia scored twice in the bottom of the seventh and added a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Tech scored a run in each of the last three innings to hold off the Cavalier comeback. Murton hit a run-scoring single in the seventh, Plagman smacked his solo home run in the top of the eighth inning, and Patrick Long scored on a fielder’s choice by Jeff Rowland in the ninth to cap the Jackets’ scoring at 14 runs.
McAnaney (4-4) took the loss after giving up six runs on eight hits in 3.2 innings. Virginia’s pitching staff of McAnaney, Andrew Carraway , Kevin Arico and Robert Poutier combined to record 11 strikeouts on the night.
A live video broadcast of Saturday’s game will be available on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv), and the game can be heard on WREK Radio (91.1 FM in Atlanta/www.wrek.org). Live stats for all Tech baseball games can be found at Ramblinwreck.com.
–GT–
