March 12, 2006
ATLANTA – Virginia’s Sean Doolittle held Georgia Tech to two runs on six hits in six innings as the visiting Cavaliers (15-4, 1-2 ACC) handed the Yellow Jackets (16-1, 2-1) their first loss of the season, 6-3, on Sunday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Despite dropping Sunday’s game, Georgia Tech won the three-game series, 2-1. The Yellow Jackets have won 16 of their last 18 Atlantic Coast Conference regular season series.
Georgia Tech’s 16-game winning streak was the longest in the nation, while the Yellow Jackets’ 16-0 start to the season tied for the second best in school history.
Doolittle (4-0) went six innings and struck out seven batters. Casey Lambert worked the final two innings to record his team-leading third save of the season.
Brandon Guyer led Virginia with three hits, including one of the Cavaliers’ six doubles in the game. Doolittle, Tom Hagan and Greg Miclat each had two hits.
Mike Trapani led Georgia Tech with two hits.
The Cavaliers jumped on Tech starter Tim Ladd (2-1) for four runs on six hits in just 1.1 innings. After filing to score in the first inning, Virginia sent eight batters to the plate in the second to take a 4-0 lead. Three doubles from Jeremy Farrell, Beau Seabury and Tim Henry led to the first two runs of the inning, and Miclat and Doolittle added RBI singles for the final two runs.
The Yellow Jackets broke through in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 4-1. Trapani singled to lead off the inning and Andy Hawranick drew a one-out walk before Michael Fisher delivered a RBI single.
Tech had a chance to close the gap even further when a walk to Wes Hodges loaded the bases with two outs and Jeff Kindel appeared to draw a run-scoring walk. But Kindel was called out on strikes on a questionable appeal to third base umpire Bruce Ravan, who was standing at second base at the time.
Matt Wieters pulled the Yellow Jackets to within 4-2 with a solo home run, his first of the year, to lead off the sixth inning.
The Jackets closed to within 4-3 in the eighth inning. Wieters drew a leadoff walk and a single from Whit Robbins, a sacrifice bunt from Trapani and an intentional walk to Steven Blackwood loaded the bases with one out. Pinch hitter Luke Murton connected on a deep fly ball to left field that Brandon Guyer made jumping catch at the top of the wall to prevent a potential extra-base hit. Wieters was able to score on what would be a sacrifice fly from Murton. Lambert got the next batter, Fisher, to ground out and end the inning.
The Cavaliers added two important insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning on a bad-hop RBI single from Guyer and a RBI double from Patrick Wingfield to make the score 6-3.
Tech started a final rally in the bottom of the ninth when Danny Payne led off the inning with a walk and Wes Hodges singled, but Kindel grounded into a double play to thwart the comeback attempt.
Georgia Tech returns to action on Wednesday when the Yellow Jackets host Mississippi Valley State at 4 p.m.
