April 24, 2007
ATLANTA – Matt Olson homered and drove in six runs and Ryan Peisel, Rich Polythress and Mike Freeman added three hits apiece to lead Georgia (15-26) to a 10-7 win over No. 19 Georgia Tech (26-15) Tuesday evening at the Spring Classic for Kids at Turner Field.
The Bulldogs snapped the Yellow Jackets’ four-game winning streak in front of 21,620 at the annual benefit for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. With the victory, Georgia extended its winning streak to three-straight over Georgia Tech at the annual Turner Field event after falling to the Yellow Jackets, 8-2, last Wednesday.
Olson collected four hits, including a home run and a pair of doubles, on a night when seven of the Bulldogs’ 15 hits were for extra bases.
Matt Wieters went 3-for-5 with two RBI to lead the Yellow Jackets at the plate while Jeff Ussery and Danny Payne added two hits apiece. Ussery became the 15th player in school history to hit two triples in the same game, going 2-for-3 with an RBI and three runs scored, while Payne went 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles, two RBI and two runs scored. Six of the Yellow Jackets’ 11 hits were for extra bases.
After Yellow Jacket starter John Goodman walked the first three batters of the game, Olson hit a bases-clearing double to left-center field to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Georgia tacked on two more runs in the second to extend its lead to 5-0. Freeman doubled with one out in the inning and moved to third on a double by Peisel. A grounder by Jonathan Wyatt plated Freeman before back-to-back wild pitches by Yellow Jacket reliever Tim Ladd scored Peisel for the fifth run of the game.
Goodman (1-2) took the loss, giving up four runs on two hits while walking three and striking out two in his first start since Mar. 31.
“We had hoped to get a few good innings out of Goodman,” said Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall. “He’s been out with tendonitis for the last month or so. The good news is that his arm felt fine, he just didn’t have any command.”
A two-run double by Payne in the third inning extended his hitting streak to eight games, and the Yellow Jacket centerfielder came around to score on a two-out RBI single by Wieters to pull Tech to within two runs, 5-3.
A two-run home run by Olson, his fourth of the season, pushed the score to 7-3 in the fifth inning, and Georgia extended its lead to six runs in the sixth on an RBI single by Gordon Beckham, snapping Yellow Jacket reliever Brad Rulon’s scoreless appearance streak at 10, dating back to Mar. 18.
Ussery tripled to lead off the seventh inning for the Jackets and scored on an RBI groundout by Jason Haniger before Payne doubled and came around to score on an RBI single by Wieters to pull Tech to within four runs, 9-5, but Poythress tripled with one out in the eighth and scored on a wild pitch by Tech reliever Zach Von Tersch to push the score to 10-5.
“We went through a lot of pitchers last weekend, so we were forced to pitch some inexperienced guys, and it showed,” added Hall. “We got off to a tough start, and we couldn’t make pitches when we needed to.”
Back-to-back RBI triples by Ussery and Nick Scherer in the bottom of the ninth capped the Yellow Jackets’ scoring on the night.
Georgia starter Jason Leaver (1-1) earned the win on a designated staff day, tossing three innings and holding the Jackets to three runs on two hits while striking out three.
Georgia Tech will travel to Clemson this weekend for the first of 10-straight road games for the Yellow Jackets. Tech and Clemson will square off at 7:15 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday, and at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Live video for entire series can be found on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv), while the first two games can be heard on WREK-Radio (91.1 FM/www.wrek.org) with Sunday’s contest being aired on 790 the Zone. Live stats for all Georgia Tech baseball games can be found at www.ramblinwreck.com.
