April 4, 2008
CARY, N.C. – Charlie Blackmon had three hits, including his third home run of the season, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the pitching performance by Alex White as No. 3 North Carolina (24-5, 9-3 ACC) defeated No. 14 Georgia Tech (24-6, 8-5 ACC), 8-1, Friday night in the series opener at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.
White (5-2) held Tech scoreless through seven innings of work, scattering five hits while striking out eight and walking one in the game. After Jeff Rowland led off the game with a walk, moved to second on a balk, and advanced to third on a single by Blackmon, the UNC sophomore struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam. He then stifled the Yellow Jacket offense over the next six innings, facing just four over the minimum to earn his fifth win of the season.
Blackmon collected three of the Yellow Jackets’ six hits in the game.
Dustin Ackley staked the Tar Heels to an early 1-0 lead when he led off the bottom of the first inning with an opposite-field home run, and North Carolina added another run in the second inning on an RBI single by Ackley.
An RBI single by Garrett Gore pushed the Tar Heel lead to 3-0 in the third.
A two-run double by Garrett Gore and RBI singles from Kyle Shelton and Chad Flack highlighted a five-run sixth inning which gave the Tar Heels a commanding 8-0 lead before the Jackets cracked the scoreboard on Blackmon’s home run off UNC reliever Rob Catapano in the top of the eighth inning.
Ackley, Gore, Tim Fedroff and Tim Federowicz all collected two hits in the game.
Yellow Jacket starter David Duncan (4-1) suffered his first loss of the season, yielding six runs, five of which were earned, on nine hits in 5.2 innings.
Tech and UNC will continue the series Saturday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. at the USA Baseball National Training Complex. The game can be heard on WREK Radio, while live stats for all Tech baseball games are available at Ramblinwreck.com.
–GT–
