March 2, 2007
ATLANTA – Brad Feltes and Patrick Long both had grand slams and Luke Murton delivered a late-inning three-run home run Friday evening to help Georgia Tech (7-5) to a 18-12 victory over Rutgers (4-3) in the opener of a three-game series against the Scarlet Knights at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Feltes and Long became the first pair of Yellow Jackets to hit grand slams in the same game since Eric McQueen and Jay Hood did so in the first inning against the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill on March 10, 1997.
Feltes, Murton, Matt Wieters and Wally Crancer all had three hits in the game, while Murton recorded a season-high five RBI against the Scarlet Knights.
David Duncan (3-1) earned the win against Rutgers, striking out seven in six innings of work. Tim Ladd earned his first save of the season, and the second of his career, by tossing the final 2.2 innings, giving up just one unearned run on two hits while striking out four.
A sacrifice fly by the Scarlet Knights’ Tom Edwards broke a scoreless tie in the second inning to give Rutgers a 1-0 lead before Feltes hit his first home run of the season and first grand slam of his career in the bottom of the frame to make the score 4-1. Following Feltes’ home run, Danny Payne walked, stole second and came around to score on an RBI single by Wieters to push the score to 5-1.
With two outs in the third inning, Rutgers left fielder Ryan Hill walked, David Williams singled, and Frank Meade walked before a single by Tim Querns drove in Hill and Williams to pull the Scarlet Knights to within two runs, 5-3.
A sacrifice fly by Payne in the bottom of the third pushed the score to 6-3 before Long broke open the game in the fourth inning with his grand slam, which was also the first home run of his career, plating Wieters, Wally Crancer and Murton. Chris House scored another run before the inning was over, helping Tech to an 11-3 lead.
A solo home run by Meade in the fifth inning, his second of the season, pulled the Scarlet Knights to within seven runs, but a sacrifice fly by Murton in the bottom of the frame extended Tech’s lead back to eight runs at 12-4.
Rutgers’ Todd Frazier belted the game’s third grand slam in the seventh inning to pull the Scarlet Knights to within one run at 12-11 after Hill homered to lead off the frame, Williams scored on an RBI groundout by Querns, and Nick Stavrakis walked with the bases loaded. Following Frazier’s fifth home run of the season, Mike Bionde singled and advanced to third on a single to right field by Williams, but Crancer caught Williams off the bag at first with a quick throw into the Yellow Jacket first baseman Murton, who applied the tag for the third out.
Wieters hit his second double of the game with one out in the bottom of the seventh and advanced to third on a single by Crancer before Murton pulled the first pitch he saw over the leftfield wall to push the Jackets’ lead back to four runs, 15-11.
Tech added three runs in the bottom of the eighth to extend its lead to 17-11. Jay Dantzler was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning before Brad Feltes and Danny Payne delivered back-to-back bunt singles. Dantzler came around to score on Payne’s single when Bionde, the Rutgers second baseman, threw the ball into the dugout trying to get Payne at first. A single by Crancer scored Feltes and a double by Murton plated Payne before Crancer was thrown out trying to score from second for the third out of the inning.
Rutgers starter Matt Giannini (1-2) took the loss for the Scarlet Knights, giving up eight runs on six hits in three innings of work.
First pitch of the second game of the series will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Russ Chandler Stadium. A live online video broadcast of the game can be found on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv), while a live radio broadcast will be available on WREK-91.1 FM (www.wrek.org). Live stats for all Georgia Tech baseball games can be found at www.ramblinwreck.com.
