May 18, 2013
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Georgia Tech homered four times Saturday, including three during a five-run sixth inning, and Jonathan King was in command for Yellow Jackets, who took down Miami 10-1 at Mark Light Stadium on the final day of the 2013 regular season.
King tossed a three-hit shutout over a career-high tying six innings, which helped the Jackets improve to 33-23 overall and 15-15 in the ACC. Miami slipped to 35-21, 14-16. Tech improved to 17-1 when scoring double-digit runs.
Tech will be the seventh seed in the 2013 ACC Tournament, and Miami the eighth, which begins next Wednesday in Durham, N.C. The ACC will announce the tournament seeding later Saturday, and will follow Sunday with game times and pairings.
Brandon Thomas had two hits Sunday and his two-run single that he scorched by third baseman David Thompson broke the scoreless tie with one out in the fifth. Zane Evans followed in the next at bat with an RBI single, and Tech staked King with a 3-0 lead.
The Jackets put the game on ice by going yard three times during a five-run, four-hit uprising in the sixth. Mott Hyde launched a solo shot over the scoreboard in left to lead off the inning. Mitch Earnest followed two batters later with a solo blast to left and Daniel Palka dealt the big blow with a two-run bomb to right that pushed Tech’s lead to 8-0.
Both Palka and Hyde homered twice on the weekend, with Palka’s home run being his ACC-leading 17th of the season. All five of Hyde’s bombs have come over the last 20 games. Palka, Smith, Earnest and Kyle Wren each had two of Tech’s 12 hits.
King fanned three and allowed just one walk and three hits (all singles) as the rookie southpaw improved to 6-4 and won his first ACC start. Evans fired two scoreless frames in relief of King, who tossed three different 1-2-3 innings and retired seven straight between the third and the fifth.
Thomas Smith tacked on the final two runs for the Jackets, lifting a sacrifice fly to score Murray in the seventh and hitting a solo homer to left in the ninth.
A run-scoring ground ball plated Miami’s only run – an unearned tally – that snapped the shutout with two outs in the ninth.
Miami starter Bryan Radziewski was on the hook for four runs and five hits over five innings and was hung just his second loss (8-2) of the year and first since March to Florida State.
