May 10, 2008
ATLANTA – Eddie Burns held Clemson scoreless through the first seven innings to guide No. 25 Georgia Tech (36-14, 14-12 ACC) to a 7-1 win over the Tigers (25-25-1) Saturday night at Russ Chandler Stadium. With the victory, Tech earned its sixth-straight home series win over Clemson, dating back to the 1998 season.
Burns (6-4) gave up just one run and worked a season-long eight innings to earn his sixth win of the season. The right-hander also struck out three and walked none before the Tigers scratched for a run on a in the top of the eighth inning. Brad Rulon closed out the game by tossing the ninth against the Tigers.
Luke Murton went 2-for-4 with two RBI to lead the Yellow Jacket offense on the night. Tony Plagman and Jason Haniger added two hits apiece while Jeff Rowland had two RBI against the Tigers.
Chris House led off the third inning with a single, moved to second on Haniger’s sacrifice bunt and scored on an RBI single by Rowland to give the Yellow Jackets a 1-0 lead in the game.
The Jackets then scored four runs in the fourth inning after loading the bases with one out. Tony Plagman led off the frame with a single and moved to second when Brad Feltes reached on a walk. After House was hit to load the bases, Haniger pushed an RBI single to right field to plate Plagman for the first run of the inning. Charlie Blackmon was then hit by pitch from Clemson starting pitcher Graham Stoneburner before the Tigers went to the bullpen. Reliever Casey Harman walked the first batter he faced in the fourth inning before an RBI single by Murton chased him from the game.
Stoneburner (5-4) took the loss, giving up five runs on five hits in just 3.1 innings of work. Ryan Hinson worked the final 4.2 innings, holding the Yellow Jackets to two runs on four hits while striking out five.
An RBI single by Murton pushed the score to 6-0 in the bottom of the sixth before a run-scoring double by Thomas Nichols capped the Jackets’ scoring at seven runs in the seventh inning.
Mike Freeman reached on a leadoff single in the eighth inning and moved to third on a double by Jeff Schaus. A groundout by Kyle Parker plated Freeman to avoid the shutout, but Burns forced Ben Paulsen to ground out and Wilson Boyd into a fly out to end the threat.
With the win, the Jackets evened the season series with the Tigers, 96-96-3, and the two teams will meet in the series finale Sunday at 1 p.m. to break the tie. A live video broadcast of the game will be available on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv), while the finale can be heard on 790 the Zone. Live stats for all Tech baseball games are available at Rambliwreck.com.
