May 20, 2010
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Chase Burnette had five of Georgia Tech’s 23 hits, and the Yellow Jackets (43-10, 20-8 ACC) belted five home runs en route to a 15-8 series opening win over Boston College (28-25, 13-15 ACC) Thursday afternoon at Commander Shea Field.
With the five home runs, the Jackets moved into a tie for second-place on the school’s single season home record list, tying last season’s total of 111. Tech has hit nine home runs in the last two games, and recorded double-digit hits in six of the last eight outings.
Burnette’s season-high five hits paced the Jackets on the day, as he drove in three runs on a home run and two doubles. Along with Burnette, Derek Dietrich, Cole Leonida, Tony Plagman and Matt Skole all went deep. Plagman’s blast was his conference-leading 19th homer of the season.
The Eagles starting the scoring in the bottom of the first with a solo shot to left field by Micky Wiswall off of Tech starter Deck McGuire.
The home run was the only earned run McGuire (8-3) allowed on the day, as he scattered two runs on five hits over 6.0 innings for the win. The Richmond, Va. native also lowered his overall ERA to 2.83.
Tech responded to the Wiswall’s homer with five runs on five hits in the second, fueled by a two-run shot to left field by Cole Leonida off of Boston College starter Pat Dean. Seniors Jay Dantzler and Tony Plagman wrapped RBI singles around Derek Dietrich’s sac fly to right field to complete the scoring in the second frame.
Dean fell to 5-2 on the season after allowing nine runs on 11 hits in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked one.
The Jackets batted around for five more runs in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 10-2. Dietrich and Plagman highlighted the scoring with home runs to right field on consecutive at-bats. It was the sixth time this season that Tech has hit back-to-back round trippers. Plagman’s dinger was the 53rd of his career, while Dietrich hit his 16th on the year.
Skole extended his home run streak to three games with a two-run shot to right field in the fifth to make it 12-2. Burnette hit a leadoff home run in the sixth to give the Jackets their fifth homer of the day, and pad a 13-2 cushion for Tech.
Boston College attacked the Tech bullpen in the seven, grabbing five runs back to cut the lead to 13-7. Anthony Melchionda’s three-run shot to right-center highlighted the inning for the home side.
Burnette and Dantzler added RBI hits in the 9th to close out the scoring for Tech.
The series continues Friday at 1:30 p.m. at Commander Shea Field. All games can be heard live on WREK 91.1 FM or online at RamblinWreck.com. Because of travel restrictions, Saturday’s game has been moved to a 12:30 p.m. start from its original 1 p.m. scheduled time.
