May 5, 2007
TAMPA – Matt Wieters homered and drove in five runs and David Duncan tossed six strong innings to lead No. 24 Georgia Tech (28-17) to an 11-3 win over the University of South Florida (28-19) Saturday night in the series opener at Red McEwen Field on the campus of USF.
After taking the week off for final exams, the Georgia Tech offense exploded for 11 runs on 16 hits, four walks and an HBP on the night. Wieters went 3-for-4 with his team-leading eighth home run of the season to lead the Yellow Jacket offense against the Bulls, while Michael Fisher also collected three hits, including a three-run triple.
Danny Payne, Wally Crancer, Chris House and Brad Feltes added two hits apiece on a night when seven of the Jackets’ nine starters collected at least two hits.
Duncan (6-2) earned his first win in his last four starts by holding the Bulls to three runs on nine hits while striking out four. The Yellow Jacket bullpen of Elliott Ogawa and Zach Von Tersch held the Bulls scoreless over the last three innings, giving up just two hits while striking out four to close out the game.
Duncan entered the contest having tossed 26.1 consecutive innings since the Yellow Jackets had last scored with him on the mound, but Fisher, Wieters and Crancer strung together three-straight hits in the top of the first inning to give Tech a 1-0 lead to end that streak.
Wieters pushed the Jackets’ lead to 3-0 with a two-run single in the third inning that plated Feltes and Payne, who had reached on back-to-back singles to lead off the frame.
Duncan saw his streak of 15 consecutive innings without allowing a run come to an end in the bottom of the third after Mike Consolmagno tripled and scored on a one-out single by Ty Taborelli, but the Georgia Tech lefty retired the next seven batters he faced while the Yellow Jackets continued their offensive onslaught.
Wieters smacked a three-run home run, his team-leading eighth of the season, with no outs in the top of the fifth inning to push the score to 6-1 in favor of the Yellow Jackets before Fisher drove in three runs with a triple in the top of the sixth.
Feltes added the Yellow Jackets’ second home run of the game, a two-run shot in the top of the seventh, to cap the scoring at 11-3.
Danny Otero (7-6) took the loss, giving up six runs on 11 hits in five innings of work.
The Jackets and Bulls will continue the series Sunday at 12 p.m. in a game that will be broadcast locally on Catch-47 and in the Atlanta area on CSS. Fans may listen to the series on WREK-Radio (91.1 FM/www.wrek.org) while live stats are available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
