April 10, 2005
ATLANTA – Blake Wood pitched seven shutout innings and Steven Blackwood went 5-for-5 to lead No. 3 Georgia Tech (26-7) to a 20-3 win and series victory over Winthrop (22-12) on Sunday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Wood (6-0) went seven innings and allowed just two hits and one walk while striking out a career-high 10 batters. Wood, who faced two batters over the minimum, allowed just three balls to leave the infield.
Blackwood tied a career high with five hits and scored four runs, Wes Hodges went 4-for-5 and Jeff Kindel drove in four runs. Andy Hawranick, Jeremy Slayden and Whit Robbins added three RBI each as the Yellow Jackets outhit the Eagles, 20-5.
The Yellow Jackets took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-out, two-run single from Slayden.
Kindel singled and scored in the second inning to make the score 3-0, and a RBI single from Blackwood extended the lead to 4-0 in the third inning.
From there, Wood took over and dominated the Winthrop lineup. The right-hander held the Eagles to one hit, a 30-foot swinging bunt, and a walk over the first six innings while recording nine strikeouts.
Tech added three runs in the fifth inning, including a bases loaded walk to Kindel and a RBI single from Hawranick, to extend the lead to 7-0. A four-run sixth inning, highlighted by a two-run double from Kindel and RBI hits from Slayden and Hawranick, made the score 11-0.
A one-out single by Winthrop’s Tommy Lentz in the seventh was the Eagles’ first hit to the outfield, but Wood quickly pitched out of the inning by recording a groundout and his 10th strikeout of the game.
The Yellow Jackets scored six runs in the seventh to extend the lead to 17-0. Tech batted around as Hodges, Matt Wieters and Cameron Lane all had run-scoring hits.
Winthrop broke up the shutout in the eighth with three runs off Tech reliever Jordan Crews. Tech answered with a three run double from Robbins in the bottom of the inning that provided the final 20-3 margin.
Winthrop starter Ryan Nasiatka (3-3) took the loss, allowing four runs on eight hits in two-plus innings.
Georgia Tech visits Georgia on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
