May 7, 2008
ATHENS, Ga. – Deck McGuire, one of six freshmen to start against No. 8 Georgia Wednesday night, pitched a gem to lead No. 25 Georgia Tech (34-14) to an 11-1 victory over the Bulldogs (31-16-1) at Foley Field. The win was the Yellow Jackets’ second this season against Georgia, as Tech improved to 11-0 against teams from the Peach State in 2008.
McGuire (8-0) iced the Bulldog’s bats through seven innings, holding Georgia to just one run on four hits while striking out a career-high nine batters to pick up his team-leading eighth win of the season. Andrew Robinson retired the side in the eighth inning on just six pitches before Taylor Wood closed out the game by tossing the ninth.
Juniors Charlie Blackmon and Luke Murton paced the Yellow Jackets with three hits apiece. Both players went 3-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored against the Bulldogs. Blackmon, Murton and Brad Feltes all hit home runs to extend Tech’s streak to 16-straight games with a homer. It was the 21st time this season the Yellow Jackets have hit more than one home run in a game.
Each of Tech’s last nine runs were scored with two outs, including both run-scoring hits by Feltes, who went 2-for-5 with four RBI in the game.
Blackmon extended his hitting streak to 12 games when he reached on a leadoff single in the first inning. He moved to second when Luke Murton was hit by a pitch and scored the Jackets’ first run of the game on an RBI single by Derek Dietrich.
A solo home run by Murton pushed Tech’s lead to 2-0 in the third inning before the Bulldogs scratched for a run in the fourth.
McGuire tossed just nine pitches – all strikes – to cruise through the first inning and retired the first 10 batters he faced before giving up a one-out double to Matt Olson in the fourth. After McGuire struck out Gordon Beckham for the second out of the inning, Rich Poythress doubled home Olson for the Bulldogs’ lone run of the game.
A two-run single by Feltes pushed Tech’s lead to three runs in the fifth inning, and Tech scored three times in the sixth on a double by Murton and a fielding error by Ryan Peisel to push the score to 7-1.
Tech capped its scoring with a two-run home run by Blackmon in the seventh inning and a two-run homer from Feltes in the eighth.
Georgia starter Will Harvil (1-1) suffered his first loss of the season by yielding two runs on four hits in 2.1 innings of work.
The Jackets return to conference play this weekend when they host Clemson in Georgia Tech’s final home series of the season. Game times are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
