May 17, 2008
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Tony Plagman had a career-high five hits and Brad Feltes drove in three runs to lead No. 25 Georgia Tech (38-17, 16-14 ACC) past Virginia (36-19, 15-15 ACC), 9-7, Saturday afternoon at Davenport Field.
Plagman went 5-for-5 with two doubles and finished the weekend 8-for-13 (.615) with three doubles, a triple and a home run. Feltes had three hits, two of which were doubles, to finish the series with six hits against the Cavaliers.
Virginia scored two early runs off Zach Von Tersch (7-4) with an RBI groundout and run-scoring double in the bottom of the first inning, but the Yellow Jacket starter held the Cavaliers off the scoreboard over the next five innings to pick up his seventh victory of the season.
Plagman reached on a leadoff double and came around to score Tech’s first run of the game on a second-inning RBI single by Chris House. The Jackets tied the game in the top of the fourth when Derek Dietrich reached on a leadoff double, moved to third on a single by Plagman and scored on an RBI double from Feltes.
Tech broke the game open with four runs in the fourth inning. Charlie Blackmon led off the inning with a single and scored the go-ahead run on an RBI single by Dietrich. Plagman followed with a two-run single and Feltes added an RBI single to give Georgia Tech a 6-2 lead.
Jeff Rowland reached on a two-out double in the sixth and scored the Yellow Jackets’ seventh run of the game on an RBI double by Murton, his 25th of the season. The Cavaliers answered with an unearned run on an RBI single by Franco Valdes to pull within 7-3.
The Jackets added two runs in the top of the seventh to push their lead to 9-3. Plagman notched his fifth hit of the game on a single up the middle and came around to score on Feltes’ second double of the game. Feltes moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Patrick Long and scored on an RBI single by pinch hitter Thomas Nichols.
Tech finished with 16 hits in the game, seven of which went for extra bases.
The Cavaliers plated three runs in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single from Patrick Wingfield and a two-run double by Dan Grovatt, but Yellow Jacket reliever Andrew Robinson struck out Phil Gosselin to end the Virginia threat.
Robinson tossed the seventh and eighth innings before giving the ball over to Chris Hicks, who picked up his ninth save of the season by working the ninth inning.
The Yellow Jackets tagged Virginia starter Jacob Thompson (5-4) for four runs on six hits through 4.1 innings as the Cavalier ace suffered his fourth loss of the season.
The win helped the Jackets to their fourth-straight series victory.
Tech now awaits word on when they will begin ACC Tournament play. Seeding and times are scheduled to be released this weekend by the Atlantic Coast Conference office.
