May 18, 2010
ATLANTA – Tony Plagman belted two of Georgia Tech’s four home runs and Brandon Cumpton scattered four hits over six scoreless innings to lead the sixth-ranked Yellow Jackets (42-10) to a 9-3 win over Georgia State (31-21-1) Tuesday at Russ Chandler Stadium.
The Jackets improved to 12-1 against in-state opponents with the win, and closed out the regular season home schedule winning seven of their last eight at Russ Chandler. Tech has won seven of its last eight games overall.
The Jackets entered the game ranked second in the nation in home runs with 102, and belted four Tuesday against Georgia State. Plagman (2), Matt Skole and Thomas Nichols all went yard to give the team 106 on the season.
Plagman hit the 51st and 52nd home runs of his career, moving into a tie for third on the all-time list with Andy Bruce (1988-1991). The Tech senior went 2-for-4 on the day with four RBI in his final regular season game on the Flats.
“It felt great,” said Plagman when asked about his two home runs. “I got some good pitches to hit, and I took advantage of them early. If you had told me after my freshman year that I would hit this many, I would have said no way. It has been a great four years.”
Cumpton (8-2), making his first midweek start of the season, pitched six strong innings while striking out a season-high eight batters. After allowing two hits in the first inning, the Senoia, Ga. native went on to retire 16 of the next 20 batters faced.
“He [Cumpton] threw the ball really well,” head coach Danny Hall said. “We debated on taking him out after the fifth, but he was throwing so well and he had a pretty low pitch count so we just threw him out there for one more inning. He dominated the game.”
Plagman’s first home run of the evening off of Georgia State starter Will Campbell opened the scoring in the bottom half of the first, and put the Jackets on top, 2-0.
Freshman Brandon Thomas added another run in the second frame with an RBI single just passed the outstretched arms of GSU second baseman Rob Lind that scored junior Chase Burnette.
Plagman belted his second homer of the game, and 18th of the season in the third inning. His two-run dinger to right field extended the lead to 5-0. Skole followed suit on the next at-bat with his 17th round-tripper of the year, a deep shot to right-center.
Chambers (1-1) would go one more inning before the Panthers went to the bullpen in the fifth. Tech chased the Georgia State starter for six runs on eight hits in four innings. The loss for Chambers was his first of the season.
Nichols’ two-run shot in the fifth inning to right field made it 8-0 for the Jackets. It was the 10th homer of the season for Nichols, giving the Tech six players with double-digit home run totals on the year.
The Panthers finally broke through on the scoreboard with two runs in the seventh, one on a pinch-hit RBI single to left field by Carter Sackett and another on a pinch-hit RBI groundout to second by Daniel Borstein off of Tech reliever Luke Bard.
Burnette gave Tech a 9-2 cushion with his third hit of the day, an RBI single to center in the seventh.
The Jackets will close out the regular season with a three-game series at Boston College Thursday through Saturday in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Game times are 1:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 1 p.m. Saturday.
