May 5, 2006
ATLANTA – Blake Wood pitched eight strong innings and Matt Wieters and Whit Robbins hit home runs to lead No. 10 Georgia Tech (34-12) to a 7-3 win over visiting South Florida (20-26) in the opener of a three-game series on Friday night at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Wood (8-3) won his second straight start and improved to 18-4 over the last two seasons. He allowed three runs, only one of which was earned, on six hits in eight innings. Wood, who issued one walk and tied a season high with nine strikeouts, retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced.
Wieters finished 3-for-4 with two RBI, and Jeff Kindel drove in two runs on two hits to extend his career long hitting streak to 18 games. Robbins and Michael Fished added two RBI each.
After the Bulls took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a two-out RBI double from Brian Baisley, the Yellow Jackets struck for five runs in the bottom of the first inning to make the score 5-1.
Tech batted around in the first inning and scored all five runs after two outs. Kindel had a two-run double, Fisher added a two-run single and Mike Trapani scored the final run of the inning on an error.
Matt Wieters hit a two-run homer, his seventh of the year, to make the score 7-1 in the fourth inning.
The Bulls added a pair of unearned runs on RBI singles from Addison Maruszak and Kris Howell, in the fifth inning to pull within 7-3.
Robbins made the score 9-3 in the eighth inning with a two-run homer, his 10th of the season.
USF starter Casey Hudspeth (5-6) allowed seven runs in four innings and was charged with the loss. Ty Taborelli led the Bulls with two hits.
Due to inclement weather forecasted for Sunday, Georgia Tech and South Florida will conclude the three-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday at 3 p.m.
