Feb. 11, 2006
STATESBORO, Ga. – Steven Blackwood and Whit Robbins each drove in three runs to lead No. 3 Georgia Tech (1-0) to a 13-9 win over Georgia Southern (1-3) in the Yellow Jackets’ season opener on Saturday at J.I. Clements Stadium.
Georgia Tech won its 19th straight game on Georgia Southern’s home field dating back to 1997.
Tech took advantage of 13 walks and two hit batters by Georgia Southern pitchers. The Yellow Jackets left 17 runners on base, and the Eagles stayed close by hitting three home runs.
Robbins went 3-for-5 with three RBI, while Blackwood, Jeff Kindel and Mike Trapani added two hits apiece. Eight different Yellow Jackets had at least one hit and seven different players drove in a run.
Tech starter Blake Wood (1-0) worked five innings and allowed four runs to pick up his first win of the season. He issued one walk and struck our six. Matt Wieters pitched a scoreless ninth inning to close out the game.
Georgia Southern starter Josh Lairsey issued four walks in the first inning, and Kindel delivered a two-run double to give the Yellow Jackets a 2-0 lead. A RBI single from the Eagles’ Greg Dowling made the score 1-0 in the bottom of the inning.
The Yellow Jackets chased Lairsey from the game with three runs in the third inning, extending the lead to 5-1. Andy Hawranick and Trapani had RBI singles, and Blackwood drove in a run with a bases loaded walk.
The Eagles pulled to within 5-4 with a two-run homer from Dowling in the third inning and a solo shot from Jeremiah Parker in the fourth.
Tech added two runs in the fifth inning to make the score 7-4. Trapani singled and Michael Fisher walked to lead off the inning before Danny Payne put down a sacrifice bunt and Blackwood drove in both runs with a single.
Tech added a single run in the sixth inning on a RBI double from Robbins and scored twice in the seventh on a RBI single from Robbins and a sacrifice fly from Wieters, extending the lead to 10-4.
After a RBI single from Mike Economos pulled the Eagles within 10-5 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Yellow Jackets scored three runs in the top of the eighth to make the score 13-5.
Brett Pelfrey hit a two-out, three-run homer to cap a four run eighth inning and bring Georgia Southern within four runs at 13-9. All four runs in the inning were unearned.
Pelfrey and Dowling led Georgia Southern’s offense with three hits apiece.
Lairsey (1-1) allowed five runs on six hits, five walks and two hit batters in 2.1 innings of work. Georgia Southern used six pitchers in the game.
Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern will conclude the two-game series on Sunday at 2 p.m. The game will be televised by CSS.
