ATLANTA – Bryan Prince delivered a RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning, and Steve Kelly pitched 10 innings without allowing an earned run to lead top-ranked Georgia Tech (11-1) to a 2-1 victory over No. 25 Rutgers (6-1) on Friday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium. The victory extended the Yellow Jackets’ winning streak to 10 games.
With the score knotted at 1-1, Matthew Boggs led off the bottom of the 10th inning and reached base on shortstop Jeff Marciniak’s fielding error. After moving to second base on Richard Lewis’ sacrifice bunt, Prince laced a single to center field and Boggs slid around catcher Michael Popowski’s tag to come home with the winning run.
Kelly (2-0) tossed a career high 10 innings, needing just 112 pitches in the outing. He held the Scarlet Knights to just one unearned run on eight hits, six of which were singles, and no walks while striking out nine batters.
Rutgers’ James Wilson (1-1) took the loss in relief after surrendering the winning run in the 10th inning. Starter Bobby Brownlie was impressive, holding the powerful Tech offense to one run on six hits in nine innings of work, but did not figure in the decision.
The Yellow Jackets took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning when Jason Perry took a 1-2 pitch over the right-center field wall to lead off the fame. It was Perry’s second homer of the season.
Rutgers immediately answered in the top of the eighth when Brian Ciemniecki laced a two-out triple to left field and then came around to score on a passed ball.
Both teams had chances to score in the late innings but failed to capitalize. The Yellow Jackets had runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Brownlie forced groundouts from Wes Rynders and Brian Jackson to end the inning. The Scarlet Knights’ Ryan Lillis led off the top of the 10th with a triple, but Kelly worked out of the jam by forcing a foul out to first base, a line out to second base and a groundout back to the mound.
Georgia Tech and Rutgers will continue the three-game series at Russ Chandler Stadium on Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. each day.
