Feb. 22, 2015
TECH STARTERS: Spingola/CF, Smith/1B, Johnson/RF, Murray/DH, Gonzalez/3B,Innis/LF, Justus/SS, Pabst/C, Bailey/2B, Stanton/SP.
ALBANY STARTERS: Lushkevich/LF, Canaday/2B, DeMerritt/SS, Harasta/DH, Lepre/C, Mueller/RF, Blake/1B, Banes/3B, Miller/CF, Gallup/SP.
THE BASICS:
• Sophomore Arden Pabst hit a three-run, walk-off home run in the ninth inning to lift Georgia Tech to a 9-8 victory over Albany on Sunday afternoon at the Caravelle Resort’s Baseball at the Beach hosted by Coastal Carolina.
• Tech led 3-0 after the first, but a six-run second-inning gave Albany a lead it held until Pabst’s first career walk-off hit.
• The victory improved the Yellow Jackets to 5-2 overall, while the Great Danes slipped to 1-2.
• Georgia Tech, which finished the weekend 2-1, entered the game ranked 28th in the Collegiate Baseball Top 30.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
• Keenan Innis reached on a one-out error in the ninth and Daniel Gooden drew a pinch-hit, four-pitch walk to bring Pabst to the plate as the winning run. The sophomore catcher hammered the first pitch he saw over the wall for the winner.
• It was the second career homer for Pabst and the Jackets’ first walk-off hit since Matt Gonzalez’s 11th-inning single to beat Virginia Tech on May 2, 2014. Pabst scored that run versus VT.
• Pabst also threw out two more base-stealers in Sunday’s game, and for the season, has cut down six of eight steal attempts (75%).
• Innis and Matt Gonzalez each had a pair of the doubles for Tech, which out-hit Albany 12-10.
• Daniel Spingola and Thomas Smith each had multi-hit games.
• Kel Johnson extended his season-opening hitting streak to seven games with an RBI single in the second inning. Johnson has 13 hits and 13 RBI this season.
• Brandon Gold pitched a career-long 5.1 innings in relief of Devin Stanton, who was chased during Albany’s six-run second inning.
• Gold fanned four and walked one, helping stem the tide from Albany’s six-run second inning.
• Senior RHP Cole Pitts made his first appearance since off-season Tommy John surgery and tossed a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts.
• Sophomore Matt Phillips tossed a scoreless ninth inning and was credited with his first career win.
• The loss fell to Albany reliever Stephen Woods (0-1), who tossed the final three innings.
• Saturday, Tech scored eight runs and rallied to beat FIU. For the weekend, 18 of the Jackets 30 runs came in either the first or the ninth innings.
• Tech has trailed at some point in every game this season.
QUOTEABLE:
• “That was a great comeback win and a great swing from Arden Pabst. We did some good things there to win the game, certainly in the ninth inning. I was very impressed by Gold on the mound. He gave us some crucial innings. But we have a lot of things we need to work on. The big inning is killing us and we’re walking too many guys. But to our team’s credit, we’re not hanging our head and we’re battling through this right now.”
— head coach Danny Hall
UP NEXT:
The Yellow Jackets play a pair of midweek games, renewing a rivalry at Auburn on Tuesday at 5 p.m. (4 p.m. CT) and hosting Georgia State on Wednesday. Tuesday’s game at Auburn can be seen live on the SEC Network Plus and the WatchESPN app.
