March 22, 2013
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – No. 11 Georgia Tech was unable to complete the doubleheader sweep of No. 5 Florida State, dropping the nightcap, 11-3, at Dick Howser Stadium Friday night. Kyle Wren matched his season-high of four hits for the Yellow Jackets, who pounded out 13 but left 11 runners on base.
Tech (18-4, 6-2) won the series opener by a 10-0 score, but FSU (21-2, 6-2) reversed the fortunes Friday night scoring twice in the first and blowing the game open with D.J. Stewart’s grand slam in the fifth inning. Stewart finished the night with an FSU-season high six RBI to help lift Scott Sitz to the win.
Sitz worked 5.1 innings, allowing eight hits and two unearned runs, but was bailed out by three base-running miscues by the Jackets and two more runners gunned down at the plate. He improved to 5-0.
In the fourth inning with FSU up 3-0, Daniel Palka was thrown out at the plate by center fielder Seth Miller trying to score from second on Matt Gonzalez’s single. Miller came up again in the next inning, gunning down Hyde trying to score from third on a fly out from Wren.
Tech finally cracked the scoreboard in the sixth to make it 7-2. Zane Evans singled with one out, AJ Murray walked, and both scored after a Gonzalez single to right and an errant throw from Josh Delph back into the infield.
FSU, though, pushed four more across in the bottom of the sixth to slam the door on the Jackets.
Palka, Gonzalez and Hyde each had two hits and Gonzalez stretched his hitting streak to an ACC-leading 17 games. Evans was 1-for-2 and walked twice as his hitting streak reached 15 games. Wren’s hit streak is now at 11 games.
Dusty Isaacs was hung the loss (3-2), allowing six hits and four runs in four innings of work. Five Tech relievers worked behind him.
With rain in the forecast on Saturday, the teams will wait until Sunday for the rubber-game of the series. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. and the game can be seen on ESPN3.
