April 14, 2007
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – David Adams’ walk-off three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth gave No. 5 Virginia (31-8, 11-6 ACC) a 7-6 win over Georgia Tech (22-14, 10-7 ACC) Saturday afternoon at Davenport Field on the campus of the University of Virginia.
Adams collected his third hit of the game when he sent the fourth pitch that he saw off Yellow Jacket closer Danny Payne into the left field seats to score Sean Doolittle and Brandon Guyer, who had reached on a walk and hit by pitch after two outs were recorded.
Pat McAnaney (2-0) earned the win by tossing the final three innings for the Cavaliers. He held the Jackets scoreless while giving up just one hit and striking out four.
Catcher Matt Wieters led the Jackets offensively, going 2-for-3 with a pair of walks, an RBI and a run scored. Danny Payne and Tony Plagman also collected two hits apiece.
Michael Fisher’s third-inning RBI single stretched his hitting streak to a season-high 14 games, and the Yellow Jacket shortstop finished 1-for-3 with two walks, an RBI and two runs scored.
Virginia scored the first run of the game for the second-straight day on a solo home run by Brandon Marsh in the bottom of the first inning, but Georgia Tech posted a pair of runs in the top of the third to take a 2-1 lead. Brad Feltes led off the inning with a triple and scored on an RBI single by Fisher to tie the game at 1-1. With runners on first and second, Wally Crancer then grounded out to first baseman Greg Miclat, who stepped on the bag and tried to throw out Wieters, who was running to second after earning a walk, but instead threw the ball into left field, scoring Fisher from second base.
The Cavaliers answered with two runs in the bottom of the third to regain the lead, 3-2. Miclat started the Virginia offense with a one-out single and moved to third on a single by Marsh. A sacrifice fly by Sean Doolittle then plated Miclat to tie the game before David Adams’ RBI single up the middle scored Marsh for the Cavaliers’ third run of the game.
Danny Payne singled to lead off the fifth inning and Fisher followed with a walk to chase Virginia starter Matt Packer from the game. Matt Wieters then roped the first pitch he saw off reliever Michael Schwimer into right-center field for an RBI double, tying the game at 3-3, before an RBI groundout by Crancer and an RBI double by Tony Plagman pushed the score to 5-3 in favor of the Yellow Jackets.
Georgia Tech added a run in the sixth when Crancer earned a bases-loaded walk, but Brandon Guyer walked with the bases loaded in the seventh inning to pull Virginia to within two runs, 6-4.
Yellow Jacket starter Eddie Burns gave up three runs on seven hits in four innings of work, but did not factor into the decision. Payne dropped to 0-2 on the season after giving up the home run in the ninth.
The Yellow Jackets and Cavaliers will wrap up the series Sunday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. The game can be followed on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv) and WREK-Radio (91.1 FM/www.wrek.org), while live stats for all Georgia Tech baseball games are available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
