May 3, 2009
ATLANTA – Brandon Cumpton carried a perfect game into the seventh inning, and Chase Burnette went 6-for-6 with three home runs and three doubles to lead No. 10 Georgia Tech (31-11-1) to a 23-3 win over Presbyterian (10-34) Sunday afternoon.
“It was a great win and a good response to a not-so-good game last night,” head coach Danny Hall said.
Burnette’s third home run of the game, an eighth inning grand slam, gave the Yellow Jackets seven homers on the afternoon as Tech earned a series sweep of the Blue Hose.
Burnette finished the game 6-for-6 with nine RBI and five runs scored. His six hits, three doubles, three home runs and nine RBI all tied Georgia Tech single-game records, while his 18 total bases broke Pete Geist’s 25-year old record of 15. Burnette batted .667 (10-for-15) with four home runs, three doubles, seven runs scored and 13 RBI on the weekend.
“I can’t say enough about the way that Chase Burnette swung the bat today,” Hall said. “We had a lot of great at-bats, and we played really well defensively. All in all it was a very good day for our team.”
The Yellow Jackets scored 18 runs before Presbyterian recorded its first hit of the game. Andrew Williams broke up Cumpton’s bid for a perfect game with a leadoff double in the seventh inning and then came around to score on a triple by Cory Lyda to help the Blue Hose avoid a shutout. An RBI groundout by Jared Combs then made the score 18-2.
Cumpton improved to 3-1 on the season by allowing just the two runs on the two hits in the seventh inning. He also struck out six and issued no walks on the afternoon.
“Brandon Cumpton was outstanding,” Hall added. “He really took control of the game early. He attacked the strike zone and had great location with his fastball while throwing his curveball for strikes today.”
Tech’s seven home runs capped a series in which the Yellow Jackets went deep 16 times, raising their total to 89 on the season. Tech has eclipsed the 90-home run mark just 10 times in history, including six times under current head coach Danny Hall.
Luke Murton reached base four times on the day, going 2-for-2 with two home runs, a pair of walks, three runs and four RBI against the Blue Hose. Derek Dietrich had five RBI with a 2-for-4 performance at the plate. The Tech shortstop belted his ninth home run of the season Sunday, while Jason Haniger notched his seven homer of the year.
The Jackets scored a run in every inning against the Blue Hose, including plating five in the second, eight in the fifth and four in the eighth on the grand slam by Burnette.
An RBI double by Tony Plagman put the Jackets on the scoreboard in the first inning before run-scoring hits from Burnette and Jeff Rowland, followed by Dietrich’s three-run home run, made it 6-0 in Tech’s favor in the bottom of the second inning.
Burnette belted his first home run in the third inning, and a two-run blast from Murton made it a 9-0 game in the fourth.
Haniger, Murton and Burnette all hit two-run home runs in the fifth, and Dietrich added a two-run double to account for the eight runs in the frame.
An RBI single by Chris House made it 18-0 in Tech’s favor in the sixth inning, and a run-scoring double pushed the score to 19-2 in the seventh after the Blue Hose plated two in the top of the frame.
Presbyterian starter Mitchell Odom (3-1) took the loss after giving up six runs on five hits in just 1-1/3 innings. The Jackets scored runs against each of the six Blue Hose pitchers on the afternoon.
Jacob Esch worked the final two innings of the game in relief of Cumpton.
Tech will return to action this week when it travels to AT&T Park in Chattanooga, Tenn. to face Tennessee Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. The game can be heard on AM 790 The Zone, and live stats will be available at Ramblinwreck.com.
–Ramblinwreck.com.–
