April 8, 2009
ATLANTA – Ty Wright went 4-for-5 with a grand slam to lead Georgia Southern (22-8) to a 23-3 win over No. 8 Georgia Tech (20-7) Wednesday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Wright’s grand slam highlighted a seven-run seventh inning that came after Georgia Southern had taken a 4-2 lead in the top of the sixth. The Eagles plated 19 runs over the final three innings to hand the Jackets their worst loss of the season.
Georgia Southern relievers Colin Snow, Charles Matthews and Dexter Bobo combined to hold the Yellow Jackets scoreless through 3-2/3 innings before Kyle Kamppi closed out the game by working the ninth.
Snow (3-1) faced just one over the minimum in his 2-1/3 innings of work to pick up his third win of the season. The Georgia Southern freshman allowed just one hit while striking out two and walking none.
A run scoring single by Phillip Porter followed a wild pitch by Yellow Jacket starter Jed Bradley to give the Eagles a two-run advantage in the top of the first inning, but Tech cut Georgia Southern’s lead in half when Jeff Rowland reached on a leadoff double and scored on an RBI single by Derek Dietrich in the bottom of the frame.
Dietrich went 2-for-3 with an RBI in the loss.
Thomas Nichols helped the Jackets even the score in the bottom of the fourth. Tony Plagman reached on a leadoff double and moved to third on a single by Luke Murton before Nichols tied the game at 2-2 with a sacrifice fly.
The Eagles chased Bradley with a run in the fifth and scored again in the top of the sixth to take a 4-2 lead. Bradley (1-2) took the loss after giving up three runs on six hits in four-plus innings of work. The Yellow Jacket freshman also struck out five and issued two walks.
A pair of bases-loaded walks gave the Eagles a four-run cushion before Wright belted his grand slam to give Georgia Southern a comfortable 10-2 lead in the top of the seventh. The Eagles tacked on another run with a sacrifice fly by Eric Phillips before freshman Jacob Esch forced Porter to ground out to end the seventh-inning onslaught.
Georgia Southern scored a run in the eighth and plated 11 in the ninth to finish with 23 runs – the most for a Tech opponent at Russ Chandler Stadium since the 1995 season.
Georgia Tech will return to Atlantic Coast Conference play this weekend when it hosts No. 11 Virginia for a three-game series beginning Friday at 7 p.m. Two of the league’s top pitchers – Yellow Jacket sophomore Deck McGuire (5-0, 2.36 ERA) and Virginia freshman Danny Hultzen (5-0, 2.17 ERA) – will square off in the series opener, which is slated to be carried on ACC Select (www.accselect.com). The first two games can be heard on WREK Radio (91.1 FM in Atlanta/www.wrek.org), and Sunday’s finale will be broadcast on AM 790 The Zone. Live stats for the entire series will be available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
–Ramblinwreck.com–
