The Yellow Jackets captured their fourth regional crown in the last six years (2000, '02, '04 and '05) and fifth overall regional championship. Tech will face Tennessee in the NCAA Super Regional next weekend at Russ Chandler Stadium. The dates and times for the Super Regional will be announced on Tuesday morning.
"To win four regional titles in the last six years is really saying something," said Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall. "We are now in the Top 16, and that is a great accomplishment, but we're going to have to work even harder to get to the Top 8 [College World Series]."
Gustafson allowed just four hits in seven innings of work and struck out four en route to earning the tournament's Most Outstanding Player Award.
"Tim was outstanding," said Hall. "That is as good as he's ever pitched in his Georgia Tech career. He had everything working."
"I was thankful to get an opportunity to help our team win," said Gustafson. "Every inning, I was like just one more, one pitch, one batter at a time. After the sixth inning, I thought, maybe I'll sit and let somebody else go in, but I just wanted one more."
Slayden went 3-for-4, with his 13th home run of the season and drove in three runs, while Wieters finished 2-for-5, with his 10th homer of the season, driving in two runs and extending his hitting streak to 15 games, to lead the Yellow Jackets offensively. Wieters also tossed two scoreless innings on the mound, allowing one hit and struck out four.
USC's Steven Tolleson and Steve Pearce finished the day 2-for-4 to pace the Gamecocks' offensive attack. Right-handed pitcher Aaron Rawl (9-6) took the loss on the hill, throwing 2 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits, four earned runs and struck out one.
"Congratulations to Georgia Tech," said South Carolina head coach Ray Tanner. "They have an outstanding club and did a tremendous job. They got a great performance from Gustafson tonight. I would've been happy giving up four earned runs tonight, but he was so good that we just couldn't get anything going offensively."
Junior catcher Andy Hawranick, junior shortstop Tyler Greene, junior right fielder Jeff Kindel, freshman center fielder Danny Payne and sophomore right-handed pitcher Blake Wood were all selected to the NCAA Atlanta Regional All-Tournament team for Tech.
The Yellow Jackets struck in the first inning with one run on back-to-back singles by Kindel and Wieters, and an error by USC right fielder Brendan Winn, which allowed Kindel to score from first base and give the Jackets a 1-0 lead.
Tech used the long ball in the top of the third inning as Wieters and Slayden hit back-to-back home runs, a two-run and solo shot, to advance the Jackets' lead to four, 4-0.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Gamecocks loaded the bases on two base hits and a walk, but the Jackets turned a double play, home to first base, on an attempted safety squeeze play, to keep USC off the scoreboard.
Slayden led off the seventh inning with a double and scored on a two-out RBI single by Hawranick to close out the scoring in the game.
NCAA ATLANTA REGIONAL - GAME SEVEN
Georgia Tech vs. South Carolina
June 6, 2005 at Atlanta, Ga. (Russ Chandler Stadium)
Georgia Tech 5 (45-17)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg.
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Danny Payne cf........... 4 0 0 0 1 0 4 0 1 .291
Tyler Greene ss.......... 5 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 0 .373
Jeff Kindel rf........... 2 2 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 .363
Matt Wieters 1b/p........ 5 1 2 2 0 0 9 0 4 .369
Jeremy Slayden dh........ 4 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 .361
Whit Robbins 1b......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .265
Wes Hodges 3b............ 5 0 2 0 0 0 0 4 2 .400
Steven Blackwood lf...... 4 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 .340
Andy Hawranick c......... 4 0 1 1 0 0 10 1 2 .298
Jake Hall 2b............. 4 0 1 0 0 1 2 2 1 .122
Tim Gustafson p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Totals................... 38 5 11 4 4 5 27 10 10
South Carolina 0 (41-23)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg.
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Michael Campbell lf...... 4 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 .315
Steven Tolleson ss....... 4 0 2 0 0 1 0 9 0 .296
Steve Pearce 1b.......... 4 0 2 0 0 1 15 0 0 .358
Neil Giesler 3b.......... 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 .254
Chris Brown dh........... 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 .274
Tommy King 2b............ 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 .248
Ryan Mahoney ph......... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .228
Brendan Winn rf.......... 3 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 .225
Ian Paxton c............. 3 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 .200
Davy Gregg cf............ 3 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 .301
Aaron Rawl p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Forrest Beverly p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -
Totals................... 32 0 5 0 2 8 27 14 7
Score by Innings R H E
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Georgia Tech........ 103 000 100 - 5 11 1
South Carolina...... 000 000 000 - 0 5 1
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E - Greene, T.(19); Winn, B.(1). DP - Georgia Tech 1.
LOB - Georgia Tech 10; So. Carolina 7. 2B - Slayden, J.(9); Hodges, W.(18); Brown, C.(9).
HR - Wieters, M.(10); Slayden, J.(13). SB - Payne, D.(24); Gregg, D.(13).
Georgia Tech IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA
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Tim Gustafson....... 7.0 4 0 0 2 4 25 27 109 3.33
Matt Wieters........ 2.0 1 0 0 0 4 7 7 29 2.54
South Carolina IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA
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Aaron Rawl.......... 2.1 7 4 4 1 1 14 15 62 3.20
Forrest Beverly..... 6.2 4 1 1 3 4 24 27 104 4.50
Win - Gustafson, T (6-2). Loss - Rawl, A. (9-6). Save - None.
PB - Paxton, I.(3). Inherited runners/scored: Beverly, F. 1/0. Pitches/strikes:
Gustafson, T 109/70; Wieters, M. 29/20; Rawl, A. 62/41; Beverly, F. 104/59.
Umpires - HP: Jim Garman 1B: Steve Mattingly 2B: Andy Eaves 3B: Kendall Snyder
Start: 7:16 pm Time: 2:38 Attendance: 2823