ATLANTA – Shortstop Tim Sweeney homered and drove in five runs to lead No. 25 Rutgers (7-1) to a 10-9 victory over top-ranked Georgia Tech (11-2) in a steady rain on Saturday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium. The loss snapped the Yellow Jackets’ 10-game winning streak.
With the score knotted at 3-3, the Scarlet Knights batted around and erupted for five runs in the top of the third inning to take a 8-3 lead. Matt Wolski led off the inning with a walk and took third base on Val Majewski’s double. A RBI single from Billy McCarthy drove in Wolski while Majewski scored McCarthy got caught in a rundown. After walks to Ryan Lillis and Leon Shade loaded the bases, Sweeney delivered a two-out triple that cleared the bases and capped off the scoring in the inning.
Tech trimmed the lead to 8-6 with three runs in the fifth inning. Victor Menocal, who extended his hitting streak to 19 games dating back to last season, drove in two runs with a single, while Wes Rynders added an RBI groundout.
A solo homer from Majewski, who went 4-for-5 in the game, made the score 9-6 in the top of the seventh inning. Tech answered in the bottom of that frame with a solo blast from Bryan Prince, his third of the season, to cut the lead to 9-7.
Rutgers added an insurance run in the top of the ninth when Wolski singled and scored on a RBI single from Michael Popowski, which made the score 10-7.
Tech mounted a rally in the bottom of the ninth when Prince singled and Jason Perry blasted his third home run of the year to make the score 10-9, but Rutgers’ Eric Brown struck out Wes Rynders to end the game.
Rutgers’ Buddy Gallagher (2-0) picked up the win in relief of starter Tom Crohan after holding the Yellow Jackets to one run on three hits in four innings of work. Brown, who came out of the bullpen to pitch the ninth inning, was credited with his second save of the season.
Tech starter Rhett Parrott (3-1) took the loss after being roughed up for eight runs on seven hits in 2.2 innings.
Georgia Tech and Rutgers will play the rubber match of the three-game series at Russ Chandler Stadium on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
