June 5, 2011
ATLANTA – No. 1 seed Georgia Tech advanced to the championship round of the NCAA Baseball Atlanta Regional by defeating No. 4 seed Austin Peay 12-2 Sunday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium.
The Yellow Jackets (42-20) will now face No. 2 seed Mississippi State at 7:06 p.m., while Austin Peay (34-24) is eliminated. Tech must beat the Bulldogs twice — tonight and Monday at 7 p.m. — to advance to the Super Regionals while Mississippi State needs to win only once to advance.
Georgia Tech blasted four home runs and pounded out 18 hits while sophomore starting pitcher Buck Farmer (11-3) held Austin Peay to five hits and one earned run over nine innings while striking out nine.
“I thought that we played a pretty good game all the way around,” head coach Danny Hall said. “Buck (Farmer) was very dominant (today), it was a great performance by him and a great performance by our team.”
Offensively Tech was led by Daniel Palka, who went three-for-five with three RBI and two runs scored including a two-run home run and double, and Matt Skole, who was three-for-four with four runs scored including a solo home run and a double.
Tech jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a Mott Hyde sacrifice fly and a two-run home run by Palka. Zane Evans led off the top of the second inning with a solo home run to extend the Tech lead to 4-0.
The Jackets scored for the third straight inning on a Jacob Esch sacrifice fly scoring Skole, who singled to start the frame.
Skole hit the third home run of the game for Tech to lead off the top of the fifth inning, a towering shot into the right -centerfield trees.
The Tech offense exploded for its biggest inning of the game in the top of the seventh with five runs. The rally was keyed by Jake Davies two-run shot over the right field wall.
Austin Peay cracked the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth with two runs, one of which was unearned.
The winner of the Atlanta Regional will face the winner of the Gainesville (Fla.) Regional next week in a Super Regional.
