March 13, 2009
ATLANTA – Andrew Robinson shut the door on an eighth-inning Boston College rally to help No. 6 Georgia Tech (12-1, 4-0 ACC) edge the Eagles, 5-4, in a three-game series opener at Russ Chandler Stadium.
The win was the Yellow Jackets’ ninth-straight, and dropped the Eagles to 10-4 on the season and 2-2 in conference play.
Boston College scored a pair of unearned runs in the top of the eighth inning before reliever Zach Brewster entered the game and struck out Mike Sudol on three pitches for the first out of the frame.
Robinson then closed out the inning by forcing pinch hitter Matt Hamlet and shortstop Garret Smith into groundouts, and then closed out the game with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to pick up his first save of the season.
“After missing last weekend, Andrew was just outstanding today,” Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall said.
Yellow Jacket starter Deck McGuire (4-0) yielded just two earned runs through seven innings of work to pick up his fourth win of the season. The sophomore improved to 12-1 in his career with timely pitching, which included striking out batters to end the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
“I thought that Deck got better as the game went on today,” Hall said. “And I was extremely pleased with Brewster coming in and getting that big out for us.
“Overall, I thought that our pitching was very good today.”
Matt Skole helped the Jackets to a 2-0 lead in the second inning with a two-run home run, his fourth of the season. The hit was the only one allowed by JB MacDonald through the first 4-2/3 innings of the game, and one of just five given up by the Eagle starter in his seven innings of work.
“The good thing about this team is that up and down the lineup, there are several guys that can hit home runs,” Hall said. “You never know who is going to hit it on a particular day, and today it was Matt. It gave us a nice lead to start with, and I give MacDonald credit – I thought he threw a great game as well.”
An RBI single by Robbie Anston narrowed the Yellow Jackets’ lead to 2-1 in the fourth inning, and the Eagles tied the game in the top of the sixth inning on a solo home run by Sudol.
MacDonald didn’t run into trouble again until the bottom of the sixth, when Tech loaded the bases on three-straight hits by Jeff Rowland, Derek Dietrich and Jason Haniger. He then worked a ground ball out of Tony Plagman, but first baseman Mike Belfiore’s throw to the plate was in the dirt, allowing both Rowland and Dietrich to score. Tech plated its final run of the frame when the Eagles recorded a double play for the first two outs of the inning.
MacDonald (1-2) suffered his second loss of the season despite holding the Jackets to just five runs, only two of which were earned, on five hits while striking out six and walking two in seven innings.
The Jackets and Eagles will continue the series Saturday at Russ Chandler Stadium. Junior RHP Zach Von Tersch (3-0, 4.50 ERA) will make his fourth start of the season for the Yellow Jackets, and Boston College will counter with sophomore LHP Pat Dean (2-1, 5.29 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m., and the game can be heard on WREK Radio (91.1 FM in Atlanta/www.wrek.org), while live stats will be available at Ramblinwreck.com.
