May 5, 2018
THE FLATS – Freshman outfielder Baron Radcliff recorded the biggest hit of his young career as a Yellow Jacket on Saturday night, as the Norcross, Georgia native hit a three-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the White and Gold an 11-8 extra-inning walk-off win over the Radford Highlanders at Russ Chandler Stadium.
The walk-off win with two outs is the second-straight for the Jackets, who walked-off with a 6-5 win on an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning on Friday night.
With the Jackets leaving the bases loaded and the winning run on third in the bottom of the ninth, the Highlanders looked poised to steal an extra-inning win from the home team. However, junior reliever Micah Carpenter, who pitched a clean ninth, pitched around two walks in the top of the 10th to keep the score tied at 8-8.
That set the stage for the Jackets in the bottom of the 10th, as Kyle McCann led off the inning with a single to right field. After Oscar Serratos worked a walk to put runners on first and second, McCann was picked off on second base for the first out in the inning.
Yet heads up base running, allowed Serratos to move up to second base in the rundown.
Following a strikeout for out number two, Radford intentionally walked Colin Hall.
The 6-4, 228 pound freshman made them pay, as Radcliff hit a 1-1 pitch deep into the trees behind the wall in right center field to give the Jackets an 11-8 extra-inning win.
The extra-inning win is the first for the Jackets this season (1-3).
With the win, Georgia Tech has won 13-straight non-conference three-game series dating back to 2013 and seven-straight home weekend series after starting the year 1-2 in the Atlanta Challenge on opening-weekend.
Carpenter (1-1) picked up the win, as he struck out two and walked two over 2.0-hitless innings.
The loss fell to Radford’s Brandon Donovan (1-2), as the righty gave up three runs on two hits, two walks and one strikeout over 0.2 innings of work in the extra frame.
The Jackets jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first, as designated hitter Tristin English drove in two with a double to left field, while McCann immediately followed with a sacrifice fly.
After Radford cut the Tech lead to one at 3-2 with a two-spot in the top of the second, the Jackets scored one run in the third on a Serratos home run, a run in the fourth on a Murray sac fly, another run in the fifth on a Radford throwing error and another one in the sixth on an RBI double by McCann to take a 7-2 lead to the seventh.
However, the next six runs would come from the Highlanders, as Radford scored four runs in the seventh on a Tech throwing error, a two-run single by Spencer Horwitz and another RBI single from Matt Roth, and then added two more runs in the eighth on a pair of RBI singles to take an 8-7 lead midway through the eighth inning.
With one swing of the bat, Murray knotted the game up at 8-8 with a solo home run to center field in the bottom half of the inning to send the game to the ninth tied.
Offensively, Tech had nine different players record at least one hit for the game, while the Jackets drew 10 walks, two intentional, compared to just four strikeouts.
Coming in off the bench, Radcliff (3-for-3, HR, 3 RBIs, run) posted a team-high three RBIs along with English (1-for-5, 2B, 3 RBIs, run). Wade Bailey (2-for-4, BB, run), McCann (2-for-5, 2B, RBI), Serratos (2-for-5, BB, RBI, 2 runs) and Colin Hall (2-for-5, IBB, run) all had two hits apiece on the night.
Murray (1-for-5, HR, SF, 2 RBIs, 2 runs) had two RBIs in the win, while Joey Bart (1-for-2, 2B, 4 BB, run) reached base safely five-out-of-six plate appearances.
Tech starter Connor Thomas did not factor in the decision, but was solid in recording another quality start for the White and Gold as the lefty allowed just two runs on seven hits and four strikeouts over the first 6.0-complete innings.
Both teams struggled to drive in runs, as the Jackets left 14 runners on base, while Radford stranded 11.
Georgia Tech (26-21) will look for the series sweep over Radford (20-25) tomorrow afternoon. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
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Saturday night’s hero Baron Radcliff with a walk-off three-run home run in the 10th inning to give the Jackets an 11-8 extra-inning win on Saturday night! #TogetherWeSwarm pic.twitter.com/NJ6bNMNBgy
— GeorgiaTech Baseball (@GTBaseball) May 6, 2018
