March 21, 2010
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Junior Cole Leonida was 3-for-5 with five RBI as five different players hit a home run Sunday in Georgia Tech’s (16-2, 5-1 ACC) 10-3 win over Maryland in the series finale Sunday at Shipley Field in College Park, Md. The Jackets took the series with the win.
“I thought we had some good at-bats today,” head coach Danny Hall said. “I honestly thought [Maryland’s] Sander Beck pitched very well early on, but when he did make a mistake, we went at him hard and hit a home run. Anytime you’re on the road and you get the lead, it’s a good thing. We ran at him [Beck] hard early, gave Jed Bradley a lead, and I thought he threw the ball well.”
Tech hit five home runs for the second time this season, the previous coming against Xavier on Feb. 27.
Leonida was a triple shy of the cycle, as he hit a single, double and a home run Sunday. He is now hitting .439 with five home runs on the season, and leads the team in RBI with 26.
Bradley (3-1) allowed just one run on six hits, while throwing a career-high seven innings Sunday. He also struck out nine batters en route to his third win of the season.
Tech hit four home runs in the first three innings to jump out to a 5-0 lead on the Terrapins. Leonida hit a two-run shot in the first, junior Jeff Rowland knocked a solo blast in the second, and Derek Dietrich and Tony Plagman belted back-to-back homers in the third off Maryland starter Sander Beck.
Dietrich homered in every game of the series and now has four on the year. Plagman hit the 42nd of his career, and continues to move up the all-time charts where he currently sits in a three-way tie for sixth.
After Plagman was hit by a pitch with bases loaded in the fourth to make it 6-0, Leonida grabbed his third hit of the day with a double off of the high fence in left field that scored three to extended Tech’s lead to 9-0. It also lifted Beck, who allowed nine runs (all earned) on six hits in 3.1 innings for his third loss of the season.
Maryland spoiled the shutout in the bottom of the fourth, with a two-out RBI single to right field by Mike Rozak that scored Brandon Padula from third.
Tech’s fifth home run of the game came in the seventh, as Matt Skole hit a solo shot to center field for the 10th run of the game.
Bradley carried his strong performance on the mound into the seventh inning. He retired 10 of the final 12 batters he faced since allowing a run, and made his second pickoff of the game, with a throw to Jacob Esch at second to get the tag on Maryland’s Jordan Hagel, and get out of the inning.
Maryland got two runs back in the eighth, on a two-run home run to left field off Tech freshman Buck Farmer. Senior right-hander Andrew Robinson pitched a scoreless ninth as Tech improved to 16-2 on the season and 5-1 in conference play.
The Jackets return to action Tuesday, March 23, in a makeup game with Mercer at 6 p.m. in Macon, Ga. It is the makeup of the March 10 postponement.
