March 26, 2008
ATLANTA – Tony Plagman and Derek Dietrich combined for four of Georgia Tech’s seven home runs as the 17th-ranked Yellow Jackets downed Alabama State, 17-4, Wednesday night at Russ Chandler Stadium. With the win, Georgia Tech improved to 19-5 on the season while the Hornets dropped to 9-10.
Dietrich went 3-for-3 with two home runs, three runs and three RBI while Plagman collected two hits, both home runs, in three at bats. He also scored three runs in the game.
Jay Dantzler went 3-for-5 with a run and two RBI, and Luke Murton and Jason Garofalo added two hits apiece for the Yellow Jackets.
Brandon Cumpton (1-0) earned his first win of the season by holding Alabama State to four runs, only three of which were earned, on six hits. He also fanned eight and walked three in the game. Andrew Robinson, Brad Rulon and Chris Hicks all worked scoreless innings in relief to polish off the Hornets.
Alabama State scored the first run of the game on an RBI groundout by Joshua Clemons to plate Furquan Shamsud-Din, who led off the second inning with a double and moved to third on a single from Ronald James. Dietrich tied the game with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the second and Plagman followed with a one-out home run to put the Jackets ahead 2-1.
Tech doubled its run total in the second inning off an RBI double by Charlie Blackmon and an RBI single by Dietrich before Plagman gave the Jackets a 5-1 lead in the fourth inning with another solo home run, his second of the game and seventh of the season.
A pair of Yellow Jacket errors helped Alabama State pull to within 5-3 in the fifth inning, but back-to-back home runs by Dietrich and Brad Feltes followed by a sacrifice fly from Jeff Rowland pushed Tech’s lead to five runs in the bottom of the frame.
An RBI groundout by Clemons made the score 8-4 in the top of the sixth, but the floodgates opened in the bottom of the inning, as Murton, Dantzler and Jeff Ussery all hit RBI doubles and Cole Leonida added a two-run home run to push the score to 14-4.
A solo home run by Chase Burnette and a two-run double from Garofalo capped Tech’s scoring at 17 runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Zeb Hilburn (4-3) took the loss by giving up eight runs on nine hits in 4.1 innings. Marquise Blake worked the final 3.2 innings for the Hornets, and gave up nine runs on nine hits while walking six and striking out three.
The Jackets hit the road for Chestnut Hill, Mass., where they will face Boston College in a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series beginning Friday at 2:30 p.m. The two teams will square off Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m., and the entire series can be heard on WREK Radio (91.1 FM in Atlanta/www.wrek.org) while live stats for all Georgia Tech baseball games are available at Ramblinwreck.com.
