March 16, 2010
ATLANTA – Jacob Esch drew a bases-loaded walk to break a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning, and Andrew Robinson pitched a perfect ninth as the No. 3 Georgia Tech baseball team defeated rival Georgia, 6-5, Tuesday night in front of 2,856 fans at Russ Chandler Stadium.
The Yellow Jackets have now won five-straight games at Russ Chandler Stadium against the Bulldogs, and improve to 14-1 on the season. Georgia fell to 8-9 overall with the loss.
Junior Derek Dietrich was hit by pitch to lead off the inning, junior Chase Burnette was walked, and senior Jay Dantzler took the same approach after taking four straight balls from Georgia relief pitcher Alex McRee (0-1). After striking out the next two batters, McRee appeared to be on his way to getting out of the jam, but Esch did not swing at a single pitch on the next at-bat as Dietrich jogged home for the win.
Tech senior pitcher Andrew Robinson (2-0), who has made 80 career appearances on the mound, retired the side in the ninth by forcing a pop-up and striking out the final two for his second win of the season.
Robinson pitched 2.0 scoreless innings of relief while allowing just one hit in the process.
The Jackets belted three home runs in the game, including two in the first inning off Georgia freshman starter Blake Dieterich to jump out to an early 4-0 lead.
Junior center fielder Jeff Rowland led off the game with a solo shot to right field, before senior Tony Plagman belted a two-run homer off of the CSS television truck in right center. The home run was the 41st of his career, and ties for him eighth on Tech all-time list.
Tech added another in the bottom of the second, on a solo home run from senior Jay Dantzler.
Georgia clawed its way back, with two runs in the sixth, followed by three in the seventh to take the 5-4 lead. Bulldog center fielder Zach Cone led the charge with two triples to left field off of Tech starter Mark Pope, bringing in three of the four runs.
Pope made his first start in two-weeks, as his last two scheduled appearances were postponed because of inclement weather. He held Georgia scoreless through five innings, but the Bulldogs made their run in the sixth. The Marietta, Ga. native struck out a career-high nine batters in a valiant effort of 6.1 innings pitched.
Junior catcher Cole Leonida led the rally for the Jackets in the bottom of the seventh, delivering an RBI single up the middle off UGA’s Cooper Moseley to tie the game. Leonida has had a major hand in Tech’s last three games, as he brought in the go-ahead run in Tech’s previous two games.
The Jackets resume Atlantic Coast Conference play this weekend with a three game series at Maryland in College Park, Md. Friday’s game will begin at 6 p.m., as both Saturday and Sunday are set for 1 p.m. starts.
-RamblinWreck.com-
