May 15, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. – – Andrew Wolcott pitched Duke to a 6-4 win over No. 7 Georgia Tech by tossing a complete game against the Yellow Jackets Saturday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field.
The Blue Devils (33-22, 14-15 ACC) held the Jackets (34-14-1, 17-9-1 ACC) off the scoreboard over the final five innings to drop them from contention for the Atlantic Coast Conference’s regular season title. Tech needed to win all three games against Duke, which hadn’t been swept all season, to finish the season with a higher winning percentage than Florida State.
The two teams will battle for the series win in the season finale Saturday at 1 p.m. The game can be heard on WREK Radio (91.1 FM in Atlanta/www.wrek.org), while live stats will be available at Ramblinwreck.com.
Wolcott (7-3) gave up 11 hits to the Yellow Jackets, none of which left the yard, and threw 129 pitches in his nine innings of work. The Jackets plated one in the first and three in the fourth, but Wolcott faced just two over the minimum over the final five innings to pick up his seventh win of the season.
All six of the Blue Devils’ runs came against starter Brandon Cumpton (3-2), who yielded eight hits and walked two in his five innings of work. Junior Andrew Robinson held the Blue Devils off the scoreboard over the final three innings and gave up only four hits while striking out three and issuing no walks.
Jeff Rowland led Tech’s offense with a 3-for-4 performance against the Blue Devils, while Luke Murton, Tony Plagman and Chase Burnette all added two hits apiece.
Tech struck for a run in the first inning when Rowland reached on a leadoff single and scored on a base hit by Murton. Duke didn’t let the Jackets hold the lead for long, as Alex Hassan led off the bottom of the frame with a triple to the right field gap and crossed the plate on a groundout by Matt Williams.
Hassan made it a 4-1 game in the second inning when he belted a three-run home run over the left field wall, and the score held until the top of the fourth when Tech evened the game at 4-4.
Murton reached on a leadoff single and moved to third on Plagman’s first hit of the afternoon, a double down the left field line. Jason Haniger then followed with a double that plated both Murton and Plagman before scoring on Burnette’s RBI single.
Five of the first six batters of the inning reached base against Wolcott, but the right-hander retired Derek Dietrich with a fly ball to get out of the bases-loaded jam with the score still tied at four-apiece.
Duke responded by loading the bases in the bottom of the fourth and took a 5-4 lead when Jeremy Gould legged out a two-out infield single. Cumpton then worked out of the jam with a ground out from Jake Lemmerman.
A solo home run by Tim Sherlock pushed Duke’s lead to 6-4 in the bottom of the fifth inning, and Duke rode Wolcott’s arm the rest of the way.
Robinson faced only three over the minimum through the final three innings.
Hassan finished with three hits, three runs and three RBI for the Blue Devils, while Williams and Sherlock also posted three hits in the game.
