April 9, 2005
ATLANTA – Matt Repec and Daniel Carte each drove in three runs and Winthrop (22-11) withheld a late Georgia Tech (25-7) rally as the Eagles defeated the third-ranked Yellow Jackets, 12-9, on Saturday night at Russ Chandler Stadium. Winthrop evened the three-game series at one win apiece and earned their first win over Georgia Tech in the 16-game all-time series.
Winthrop starter Heath Rollins (5-4) earned the win, working 7 1/3 innings and allowing five runs on nine hits. He issued one walk and struck out eight while throwing 134 pitches.
Rollins, who was also in the lineup as the designated hitter, went 3-for-4 with a RBI. Repec was 3-for-3 with three RBI, and Carte had a key two-out, three-run double in sixth inning for his only hit in the game. Chris Carrara had two hits and drove in two runs.
Danny Payne, Tyler Greene, Steven Blackwood, Jeff Kindel and Matt Wieters led the Yellow Jackets with two hits each. Kindel tied a career-high with four RBI. Tech outhit Winthrop, 13-12.
After Winthrop took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning on Tommy Lentz’s RBI double, Tech answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning on consecutive RBI singles from Payne and Greene.
The Eagles scored four runs on two hits, two walks and an error in the fourth inning to take a 5-2 lead. Repec and Rollins had RBI singles and Lentz drove in a run with a groundout. The fourth run of the inning scored on a throwing error by Tech second baseman Michael Fisher when he was trying to complete a double play.
Repec hit a two-run homer, his second of the year, to extend Winthrop’s lead to 7-2 in the fifth inning. Carte delivered a two-out, three-run double in the sixth to make the score 10-2.
The Yellow Jackets managed just one hit from the fourth through the sixth innings before Payne doubled and scored on a RBI single from Greene to make the score 10-3 in the seventh.
Tech chased Rollins from the game in the eighth, scoring two runs on a single by Kindel to pull within 10-5.
Winthrop added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning on a two-run single from Carrara to make the score 12-5.
The Yellow Jackets mounted one final rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, scoring four runs, including a two-run single from Kindel and a RBI single from Andy Hawranick, to pull within 12-9. Tech brought the tying run to the plate twice with at bats by Fisher and Payne, but Winthrop reliever Jon Wilson recorded a strikeout and a flyout to end the game.
Tech starter Jason Neighborgall (5-2) failed to earn a win for his third consecutive weekend start. The right-hander took the loss after allowing seven runs on six hits and four walks in five innings while striking out six. Five of the seven runs he allowed were scored by runners who walked or were hit by a pitch.
Georgia Tech and Winthrop will conclude the three-game series on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
