April 7, 2015
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TECH STARTERS: Spingola/CF, Innis/LF, Gonzalez/3B, Murray/DH, Smith/1B, Justus/SS, Peurifoy/RF, Gold/1B, Pabst/C, Parr/SP.
MERCER STARTERS: Meeder/SS, Bonin/2B, Ware/LF, Edgeworth/3B, Joe/1B, Moorhouse/LF, Madden/C, Truitt/CF, Cornell/DH, Johnson/SP.
THE BASICS:
· Daniel Spingola launched a three-run home run in the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie and Ben Parr pitched a gem as Georgia Tech held off Mercer, 4-3, Tuesday night at Russ Chandler Stadium.
· A.J. Murray also homered for the Yellow Jackets, who improved to 6-0 versus in-state opponents and snapped a three-game skid in the series with the Bears.
· Georgia Tech, which has won six of its last seven, improved to 22-11 overall — its high water-mark of the season. Mercer slipped to 20-14.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
· Mercer grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third, Murray’s sixth home run of the season made it 1-1 in the fourth and it remained that way until the seventh, thanks in part to a home-run saving catch from Mercer’s Trey Truitt, who scaled the center-field to rob Brandon Gold of a home run in the fifth inning.
· Gold, though, drew a two-out walk to trigger Tech’s rally in the seventh and Arden Pabst followed with a single.
· After a Mercer pitching change, Spingola hammered the second pitch he saw from Austin Lord over the wall in deep right-center field and his three-run shot gave Tech its first lead at 4-1.
· With Parr working into the eighth inning, the Bears scratched for two more runs before Zac Ryan entered to retire five of the six he faced and slam the door with his sixth save.
· Mercer reliever Mitchell Wade was on the hook for two runs in the seventh inning and was hung the loss (1-1). Starter DJ Johnson allowed just a run on four hits in his five innings of work.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
· Spingola’s seventh-inning home run extended the senior’s reached-base streak to a career-best 24 games.
· Pabst was 2-for-3 with a double in the fifth and a single in the seventh to stretch his hitting streak to eight games.
· Parr pitched a career-long 7.1 innings, surpassing his previous best of six innings, which came on six different occasions last season.
· Parr recorded his second straight midweek win and improved to 5-1.
· In 10 career starts versus in-state opponents, Parr is now 6-1 and has pitched to a 2.14 ERA in those outings, allowing 39 hits in 54.2 innings with 41 strikeouts against 21 walks.
· Tech, the ACC’s best defensive team, won despite a season-high four errors.
QUOTEABLE:
“Parr was outstanding tonight. He’s thrown the ball well three times in a row for us. He pitched great at Georgia State last Tuesday, was good this weekend in relief at Virginia Tech and was good again tonight. We hit some balls hard off of Johnson, but they made some good plays behind him, so we needed to have a good pitching performance.”
–Head Coach Danny Hall
“I felt really good today, and was able to throw all of my pitches for strikes down in the zone and the defense backed me up. I know we had some errors, but they responded and still made some great plays to keep us in the game and Spingy hit that big-time home run for us.”
–Sophomore LHP Ben Parr
UP NEXT: The Yellow Jackets welcome No. 15 Virginia this weekend for a pivotal ACC series between Coastal Division rivals. All three games air on ESPN3 and Friday’s series-opener is set for 7 p.m.
