April 9, 2006
BLACKSBURG, Va. – Jared Hyatt struck out eight batters in six innings and Luke Murton drove in two runs as No. 9 Georgia Tech (25-8, 8-7 ACC) rallied for a 5-3 win over Virginia Tech (13-19, 2-13) in the second game of a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at English Field.
Earlier in the day, Georgia Tech defeated Virginia Tech 17-11 in the first game of the doubleheader, and the Yellow Jackets won two of three games in the series.
Hyatt (2-0) earned the win in his first career start. The junior right-hander worked a career-long six innings and held the Hokies to three runs on six hits. He issued three walks and struck out a career-high eight batters.
Wieters worked a scoreless ninth inning for his third save of the year after Brad Rulon pitched two scoreless and hitless innings of relief.
Wieters, who went 2-for-4 in the nightcap, was 5-for-10 with seven RBI in the doubleheader.
Murton, Jeff Kindel and Wes Hodges had two hits each for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets outhit the Hokies, 12-6.
Trailing 3-2 after six innings, the Yellow Jackets broke through for three runs in the seventh inning to take a 5-3 lead. Jeff Kindel and Matt Wieters singled and Whit Robbins was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Virginia Tech reliever Randy Buffington had control problems, and Georgia Tech tied the game at 3-3 on a wild pitch and took a 4-3 lead on a bases loaded walk before Fisher made the score 5-3 with a sacrifice fly.
Virginia Tech starter David Cross (2-5) pitched well but was charged with the loss after allowing four runs, three earned, on 10 hits in six-plus innings of work.
The Yellow Jackets struck for a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning. Wes Hodges led off with a double and scored on Luke Murton’s RBI single. Mike Trapani reached on an error by third baseman Luke Padgett, and after a sacrifice bunt from Michael Fisher, Danny Payne delivered a RBI groundout.
Virginia Tech answered with a flurry of extra base hits in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 3-2 lead. The Hokies led off the inning with four extra base hits – two triples and two doubles – that led to three runs. Jose Cueto doubled, Sheldon Adams tripled on the next pitch and Matt Hacker doubled on the following pitch. Luke Padgett had a RBI triple, and the Hokies had three runs in and a runner on third base with no outs. But Hyatt escaped without any further damage when he got a groundout and two strikeouts to end the inning.
Georgia Tech squandered scoring opportunities in the fifth and sixth innings, getting two runners on base with no outs in both innings but failing to score. In the fifth, the first two batters reached base but a pop out and a strikeout-caught stealing double play ended the inning. In the sixth, the first two reached base, but the Jackets did not score after a sacrifice bunt, strikeout and flyout ended the inning.
Padgett went 3-for-4 with a single, double and triple to pace the Virginia Tech offense. He flew out to the warning track in his final at bat of the game
Georgia Tech hosts Georgia, the first of three meetings between the schools, on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Russ Chandler Stadium.
