April 20, 2008
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Brad Feltes hit his fourth grand slam of the season and Zach Von Tersch worked out of a fifth-inning jam to help No. 21 Georgia Tech (28-12, 10-11 ACC) to a 9-6, five-inning win at Maryland (24-18, 7-14 ACC) Sunday afternoon.
The Yellow Jackets avoided a series sweep by getting in the required five innings against the Terps in the series finale. The two teams agreed to begin the game at 12 noon in an effort to complete at least five innings, but still had to sit through a 42-minute rain delay before the first pitch was thrown at 12:48 p.m.
With the Yellow Jackets leading, 4-0, in the top of the fourth inning, Cole Leonida reached on a leadoff double and moved to third on a bunt single by Charlie Blackmon. Blackmon stole second base and the Terps intentionally walked hot-hitting Luke Murton to load the bases before a passed ball plated Leonida and allowed the other two runners to advance a base. Tony Plagman was hit by a pitch to load the bases again before Feltes smacked the second pitch he saw over the center field wall, making the score 9-0 in the Jackets’ favor.
The Terps scored two unearned runs in the fourth inning after struggling against Von Tersch through the first three frames. Maryland added four runs in the fifth to narrow the Jackets’ lead to three before Von Tersch struck out A.J. Casario for the second out of the inning and forced Mike Moss to ground out, ending the threat. The Yellow Jacket sophomore improved to 5-2 on the season by working all five innings to pick up the win.
Tech jumped on the Terps with three runs in the third, highlighted by an RBI single by Blackmon, a two-run double from Murton, and a run-scoring double by Plagman.
The Jackets pounded out nine hits over the five innings, led by Blackmon and Jeff Rowland, with two apiece.
Maryland starter Kevin Biringer fell to 3-3 on the season after giving up six runs on eight hits in three innings of work.
The Jackets will conclude their five-game road swing Tuesday at 6 p.m. when they travel to Mercer. The game can be heard on WREK Radio and live stats will be available at Ramblinwreck.com.
–GT–
