May 19, 2007
ATLANTA – Ryan Strauss held the Yellow Jackets to one run on four hits and the Seminoles scored in double figures for the third-straight game as No. 3 Florida State (46-9, 24-6 ACC) completed a series sweep of Georgia Tech (31-23, 15-14 ACC) with 17-11 victory Saturday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Strauss improved to 9-2 on the season by tossing four strong innings in a designated staff day for the Florida State pitching staff. He struck out three and walked just one on the afternoon.
Florida State scored its 17 runs on just 13 hits, but also earned 13 walks while three Seminoles were hit by pitches, which made a difference in the game. Of the 16 free passes the Seminoles earned on the afternoon, 10 came around to score in the game.
Tech scored 10 runs over the last three innings, but couldn’t overcome the 14-run lead that the Seminoles built through the first six frames.
In his first start of the weekend, outfielder Ohmed Danesh led the Seminoles offensively with a 3-for-3 performance at the plate. He had a double, two walks, two runs and two RBI in the game.
Brad Feltes, Wally Crancer and Jason Haniger all collected two hits on the afternoon, while Curtis Dupart drove in two runs in the contest.
Georgia Tech took its first lead of the series when Danny Payne walked, stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Michael Fisher in the bottom of the first inning. Matt Wieters and Wally Crancer followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases, but Florida State starter Ryan Strauss struck out Luke Murton and Patrick Long before forcing a popup by Tony Plagman to escape the jam.
The Seminoles answered with three runs in the top of the second and added nine in the third to take a 12-1 lead. An RBI single by Tommy Oravetz tied the game in the second before Mark Gildea’s RBI double and an RBI single by Tony Thomas Jr. pushed the score to 3-1 after two innings. Florida State had just four hits in its nine-run third inning, but was aided by six walks while two more Seminoles were hit by pitches.
An RBI single by Buster Posey, a sacrifice fly by Rye and an RBI double by Ohmed Danesh pushed the Seminoles’ lead to 15-1 in the fourth inning.
The Yellow Jackets plated five runs and had the bases loaded with no outs in the seventh inning, but Seminole reliever Bo O’Dell forced a double play by Murton and a flyout by Long to end the threat.
After Florida State scored a pair of runs in the top of the ninth to extend its lead to 11 runs, 17-6, Georgia Tech responded with five in the bottom of the inning for the final 17-11 margin.
The Jackets now turn their attention to the 2007 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Jacksonville, Fla. The ACC Office is expected to announce the exact dates and times for each of the first three games for each school by Monday evening. The tournament will be broadcast on TV (either FSN South of SportSouth) in its entirety for the first time in history, while all Tech games can be heard on WREK-Radio (91.1 FM in Atlanta / www.wrek.org). Live stats for every game in the tournament can be found at www.ramblinwreck.com and at www.theACC.com.
