May 9, 2004
ATLANTA – Reserve shortstop Mike Trapani had a home run and a career-high four RBI as No. 21 Georgia Tech (30-17, 12-5 ACC) extended its win streak to a season-long nine games in a 14-3 win over visiting Duke (23-23, 7-11) on Sunday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium. The Yellow Jackets completed a sweep of the Blue Devils in the three-game weekend series.
Tech continued its rise in the ACC standings with its 10th straight win against league opponents, its second longest win streak in league play behind only an 11-game ACC win streak in 1997. Tech is percentage points behind league leader Virginia (15-6), but the Yellow Jackets are one game up on the Cavaliers in the loss column and thus can control their own fate in the ACC regular season race. Clemson (12-6), which visits Tech next weekend, and North Carolina (14-7) is in third place in the league standings.
Tech freshman Blake Wood (1-1) earned his first career win, working a season-high five innings and allowing two runs on four hits. He issued two walks and struck out three.
Trapani, filling in for ill starter Tyler Greene, went 2-for-4 with a home run and four RBI. Freshman Whit Robbins was a perfect 3-for-3 with three RBI, while Brandon Boggs and Ryan Stanley drove in two runs each. Tech outhit Duke, 15-8.
Duke took advantage of Wood’s early wildness for a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. But Tech answered with a RBI single from Whit Robbins in the second inning to make the score 2-1.
The Yellow Jackets exploded for eight runs in the third inning to take a 9-2 lead. Tech sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning, highlighted by a two-run double from Robbins, two-run singles from Boggs and Trapani, and a RBI single from Steven Blackwood.
A two-run homer from Trapani, his first of the year, extended the Tech lead to 11-2 in the fifth inning.
Duke’s Mike Miello cut the lead to 11-3 when he singled and scored in the top of the sixth, but Boggs and Clifton Remole had back-to-back singles in the bottom of the inning to make the score 12-3.
Stanley hit a two-run homer, his second of the year, to make the score 14-3 in the eighth inning.
Duke’s Jim Perry (0-1) took the loss in his first start of the season, working two-plus inning and allowing three runs. Javier Socorro and Adam Murray had two hits each for the Blue Devils.
Georgia Tech will face Georgia at Turner Field on Tuesday at 7 p.m. before hosting Clemson for a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series next weekend at Russ Chandler Stadium.
