The Yellow Jackets advanced to the championship game on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. and as the only undefeated team left in the regional must be beaten twice to not win the regional and advance to the Super Regionals.
Owings worked eight innings, allowing eight hits, three runs, two earned runs, fanned nine and walked just one. He also went 2-for-5 at the plate, with one run scored. Nickeas and Robbins each went 2-for-4, driving in two and three runs, respectively. Eric Patterson finished 3-for-5 and scored one run.
Robbins gave Tech a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning with a three-run home run, his second of the season, to right field to score Owings and Clifton Remole.
In the top of the third inning, Jose Delgado drove in a run with a base hit to right-center field while giving Texas Tech runners at the corners with one out. Cameron Blair hit a fly ball to center field for the second out and Tech center fielder Brandon Boggs threw a strike to home plate to nail Cooper Fouts to complete a double play and maintain a 3-1 lead for the Yellow Jackets.
In the fourth inning, TTU’s Josh Brady drove a ball to the right field wall with a runner on base, but Remole made a leaping catch as he collided with the wall to keep the Red Raiders off the scoreboard in the inning.
Blackwood unloaded on a fastball over the right field wall for his fourth home run of the season, scoring Patterson who led off the fifth inning with a base hit to left field, as Tech extended its lead to 5-1.
Blair and Josh Haney both tallied doubles in the top of the sixth inning to add another run for Texas Tech as the Red Raiders continued to trail the Yellow Jackets, 5-2.
Back-to-back singles by Mike Trapani and Patterson chased Texas Tech starter Steven Thomas from the game in the bottom of the sixth. With two runners on and two outs, reliever Adam Fry tallied a strikeout to end the threat.
The Red Raiders plated an unearned run in the seventh inning on a wild throw to first base on an attempted double play to cut the Yellow Jackets' lead to 5-3. Brady stole second base and Delgado drew a two-out walk to put runners at first and second. Brady and Delgado pulled off a double steal to give the Red Raiders two runners in scoring position, but Owings recorded his seventh strikeout of the game to end the top half of the seventh.
Nickeas increased the Yellow Jackets’ lead to four runs with a two-run homer, his seventh of the season, to left field to score Owings who earlier singled as Georgia Tech held a 7-3 lead after seven complete innings.
Boggs and Blackwood drove in Tyler Greene and Trapani with a fielder’s choice and a base hit to extend the advantage to 9-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Right-hander Jordan Crews pitched the ninth inning for the Yellow Jackets. Crews surrendered a pair of hits before notching two strikeouts and a pop out to close out the game.
Thomas (3-8) was charged with the loss for the Red Raiders, pitching 5 2/3 innings, allowing 11 hits, five earned runs and struck out two. Madison Edwards led the Red Raider at the plate going 3-for-4 with a run scored.
The fifth-ranked Yellow Jackets will face the winner of Saturday night's elimination game between No. 2 seed Texas Tech and No. 3 seed Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon.
Texas Tech Head Coach Larry Hays:
"Georgia Tech had a good game. Their guy pitched well. We really didn't. The key for us is we let too many guys get on base. We didn't get enough lead-off hitters out. Going through the sixth inning, we hit two balls hard -- one went off the wall, the other they caught -- and they hit a couple of hard ones that went over. We normally play pretty good defense. We didn't make any errors, but there were three plays we didn't make that cost us anywhere from three to five runs. That three-run homer could have been just one or two real easy if we just make a play we always make. They're a good team, they took advantage of the mistakes we made. When you don't get leadoff hitters, you put your defense in jeopardy. We just didn't do much to help ourselves today. I'm not taking anything away from Georgia Tech, I'm just disappointed in us not playing our normal game."
On Georgia Tech pitcher Micah Owings: "He's a pretty tough player. He's got enough velocity that he can get away with a mistake here and there. He throws that knee-high fastball on the outside part of the plate and we were kind of flinching at that.
[Defense] "One of our strong points all year has been that we play great defense. I thought Remole's catch on their leadoff hitter was a big play in the game because he hit that ball very hard but Remole made the play against the wall and caught it.
"We feel good about where we are. We've gotten a lot out of our two starters, and Andrew Kown (Sunday's starter) has been a horse and a warrior for us all year, so we're excited about him getting a chance to pitch tomorrow, and we've got a lot of other guys ready to throw.
"We talked about it (taking Owings out after seventh), but he felt like he could go one more inning. And as Micah is prone to do, he was even arguing for the ninth.
2004 GEORGIA TECH BASEBALL
Texas Tech at Georgia Tech
June 5, 2004 at Atlanta, Ga. (Russ Chandler Stadium)
Texas Tech 3 (39-20)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg.
------------------------------------------------------------
Brady, Josh 1b........... 5 0 1 0 0 1 8 1 1 .361
Delgado, Jose 2b......... 4 0 1 1 1 0 1 4 2 .305
Blair, Cameron ss........ 4 1 1 0 0 2 4 1 3 .374
Mask, Michael lf......... 4 0 1 0 0 3 3 0 0 .318
Haney, Josh 3b........... 4 0 1 1 0 2 2 2 0 .336
Braden, Dallas dh........ 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 .295
Fuller, Cody cf.......... 3 1 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 .298
Edwards, Madison rf...... 4 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .316
Fouts, Cooper c.......... 4 0 2 0 0 1 4 2 0 .259
Thomas, Steven p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -
Fry, Adam p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Razo, Juan p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Totals................... 36 3 10 2 1 11 24 12 8
Georgia Tech 9 (43-19)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg.
------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Patterson 2b........ 5 1 3 0 0 0 2 2 0 .327
Brandon Boggs cf......... 5 0 0 1 0 1 2 1 2 .328
Steven Blackwood lf...... 4 1 2 3 1 1 2 0 0 .369
Micah Owings p/dh........ 5 1 2 0 0 1 2 0 2 .322
Clifton Remole rf........ 4 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 .348
Mike Nickeas c........... 4 1 2 2 0 0 12 0 1 .275
Whit Robbins 1b.......... 4 1 2 3 0 1 4 1 0 .326
Tyler Greene ss.......... 3 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 .272
Mike Trapani 3b.......... 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 .429
Jordan Crews p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Totals................... 38 9 15 9 2 4 27 5 7
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Texas Tech.......... 001 001 100 - 3 10 0
Georgia Tech........ 030 020 22X - 9 15 1
-------------------------------------------
E - Patterson, E(8). DP - Georgia Tech 1. LOB - Texas Tech 8; Georgia Tech 7.
2B - Blair(22); Haney(22); Robbins, W.(10); Trapani, M.(4).
HR - Blackwood, S(4); Nickeas, M.(7); Robbins, W.(2). HBP - Fuller.
SB - Brady(31). CS - Patterson, E(6); Greene, T.(5).
Texas Tech IP H R ER BB SO AB BF ERA
-----------------------------------------------------
Thomas, Steven...... 5.2 11 5 5 1 2 27 28 5.09
Fry, Adam........... 2.0 4 4 4 1 1 10 11 6.52
Razo, Juan.......... 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 5.65
Georgia Tech IP H R ER BB SO AB BF ERA
-----------------------------------------------------
Micah Owings........ 8.0 8 3 2 1 9 31 33 3.52
Jordan Crews........ 1.0 2 0 0 0 2 5 5 0.92
Win - Owings (9-2). Loss - Thomas (3-8).
HBP - by Owings (Fuller).
Umpires - HP: Randy Bruns 1B: Ken Gracner 2B: Dan O'Connell 3B: Harry Greer
Start: 3:02 pm Time: 2:30 Attendance: 2889