March 12, 2008
ATLANTA – Derek Dietrich’s two-run home run in the fifth inning sparked a Yellow Jacket comeback to help No. 11 Georgia Tech (13-1) stop Georgia State (9-5), 10-6, Wednesday night at The Field at Panthersville.
Trailing 5-2 in the top of the fifth inning, Dietrich sent his team-leading fifth home run of the season over the left field wall to pull the Jackets to within one run at 5-4.
After Georgia State extended its lead to 6-4 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Yellow Jackets scored three in the top of the sixth to take the lead for good.
Chris House singled to lead off the sixth inning, stole second base and reached third on a balk before scoring on a single by pinch-hitter Jeff Rowland. Rowland moved to third on a double by Charlie Blackmon and the two baserunners scored on a single by Brad Feltes to give the Yellow Jackets a 7-6 lead.
The Jackets held the one-run lead until the eighth inning, when they added three more runs to push the score to 10-6. Dietrich doubled for his third hit of the game and scored on an RBI groundout by Tony Plagman before Thomas Nichols’ two-run double capped the scoring for Tech.
Dietrich went 3-for-6 with three RBI and two runs scored while House and Rowland added two runs apiece.
Taylor Wood (1-0) earned the first win of his career and was one of six pitchers for the Yellow Jackets on the night. Kevin Jacob, Andrew Robinson and Brad Rulon held the Panthers scoreless over the final three innings to close out the game.
Adam Knight (1-1) took the loss, giving up three runs on four hits in 0.2 innings.
House walked to lead off the game, moved to second base on a single by Jay Dantzler, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Blackmon and scored on a two-out infield single by Dietrich to give the Yellow Jackets an early 1-0 lead.
The Jackets pushed their lead to 2-0 in the second inning when Curtis Dupart reached on a leadoff walk, moved to third on a fielding error by Panther first baseman Mitch Rider and scored on a sacrifice fly by Dantzler.
Georgia State answered with three runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 3-2 lead. Bradley Logan reached on a one-out double and scored on Marc Mimeault’s RBI single. After the Panthers loaded the bases with another single and walk, Mimeault scored on a wild pitch by Tech starter Deck McGuire and another run came around on an RBI groundout by Chase Childers.
Mimeault went 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBI to lead the Panthers’ offense while Childers added two hits and two RBI in the game.
The Panthers pushed their lead to 5-2 in the fourth inning when Mimeault scored on a balk by Yellow Jacket reliever Brandon Cumpton and an RBI single from Childers plated Nick Hogan.
The Yellow Jackets return to conference action this weekend when they travel to Tallahassee to face Florida State in Tech’s first road ACC series of the year. The Jackets and Seminoles will play at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday before wrapping up the series with a 1 p.m. first pitch Sunday afternoon. All three games can be found on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv) and WREK Radio (91.1 FM). Live stats for all Georgia Tech baseball games are available at Ramblinwreck.com.
–GT–
