March 17, 2009
ATLANTA – Zach Von Tersch, Jed Bradley and Brandon Cumpton combined to hold Kennesaw State (7-7) to just two hits as Georgia Tech (13-1) defeated the Owls, 11-0, Tuesday night at Stillwell Stadium.
The win was the Yellow Jackets’ 10th in a row, and it was the first two-hitter tossed by the Yellow Jacket pitching staff since the 2007 season.
The Tech trio faced just three over the minimum in the nine-inning game, allowing only two singles and a walk while combining to strike out 13 Owl batters.
Von Tersch (4-0) made the start on a designated staff day and struck out three in two innings of work to pick up his fourth win of the season.
Bradley retired the first 13 batters he faced in order before issuing a walk to Owl second baseman Tyler Stubblefield with one out in the bottom of the seventh. The Yellow Jacket freshman then struck out the next two Kennesaw State batters to strand Stubblefield at first base.
Bradley struck out a career-high seven batters in his five innings of work.
Cumpton worked the final two innings, striking out three of the seven batters he faced.
Thomas Nichols singled to lead off the second inning and came around to score on an RBI single by Derek Dietrich to give Tech a 1-0 lead. Nichols helped the Jackets scratch for another run in the third with an RBI single to plate Matt Skole, who reached on a two-out double.
A fielding error by Kennesaw State shortstop Curtis Van Wyck and an RBI single by Luke Murton led to a pair of unearned runs in the top of the fifth inning, and Tony Plagman pushed the Jackets’ lead to 5-0 with a run scoring double in the seventh.
The Jackets broke the game open in the eighth inning, scoring six runs on RBI singles by Chris House, Jason Haniger, Murton and Skole.
Skole finished with three hits against the Owls, while Haniger, Murton and Nichols added two hits apiece. Jeff Rowland reached base four times, going 1-for-2 with three walks and two runs scored.
The Jackets and Owls conclude the midweek series at 6 p.m. Wednesday when the two teams meet at Russ Chandler Stadium. A live video broadcast of the game can be found on ACC Select (www.accselect.com) for a small fee, while WREK (91.1 FM in Atlanta/www.wrek.org) will broadcast the game on radio. Live stats for all Tech baseball games are available at Ramblinwreck.com.
