With the loss, the Jackets dropped their first ACC series since the first weekend of conference play, and currently stand third in the Coastal Division in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.
Tomas and Yonder Alonso earned back-to-back walks off Yellow Jacket reliever Matt Wieters to begin the inning before Menendez sent the first pitch that he saw to left field for Miami's second-straight last-inning win over the Jackets. Wieters (1-2), who was pitching his second inning in relief after catching the first 27 innings of the series, entered in the bottom of the eighth and retired three straight batters before walking Tomas to lead off the ninth. He finished with three strikeouts in 1.1 innings of work.
Danny Payne earned a leadoff walk to start the game, moved to second on a passed ball, advance to third on a groundout by Luke Murton and scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael Fisher to give the Yellow Jackets an early 1-0 lead.
Tech added another run in the second when Wally Crancer led off with a single, stole second base and came around to score on an RBI double by Tony Plagman, pushing the score to 2-0 in favor of the Jackets.
A balk by Hurricane starter Enrique Garcia plated Fisher to extend the Jackets' lead to three runs in the third inning after the Yellow Jacket shortstop reached on a two-out single, stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error by Miami catcher Jason Hagerty.
Patrick Long was issued a one-out walk and moved to second on another balk by Garcia before scoring on an RBI single by Jeff Ussery to push the score to 4-0 in the top of the fourth inning.
After Yellow Jacket starter Ryan Turner held Miami to just four hits through the first four innings, the Hurricanes exploded for three runs on three hits, including an RBI double by Blake Tekotte and a two-run home run by Yonder Alonso, in the bottom of the fifth to pull within one run at 4-3.
Turner tossed 5.2 innings and gave up four runs on nine hits while striking out five, but did not figure into the decision.
The Jackets responded with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to push their lead to 6-3. An RBI single by Chris House plated Plagman, who walked to lead off the inning and moved to third on a single by Long and an error by Tekotte before Long scored on a sacrifice fly by Payne.
After Ryan Jackson pulled the Hurricanes to within 6-4 on an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, Wieters pushed his seventh home run of the season down the left field line to lead off the seventh, extending Tech's lead back to three runs.
Miami tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when Joe Melendez hit his first home run of the season, a three-run shot, to even the score at 7-7.
Gil (3-0) earned the win for Miami, retiring the only two batters he faced in the ninth.
The Jackets will return to action next weekend when they travel to Charlottesville to face the University of Virginia in a three-game series beginning Friday at 7 p.m. at Davenport Field.
2007 GEORGIA TECH BASEBALL
Georgia Tech at Miami
April 8, 2007 at Coral Gables, Fla. (Mark Light Stadium)
Georgia Tech 7 (21-13,9-6 ACC)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
Danny Payne cf........... 3 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0
Luke Murton rf........... 3 0 0 0 2 0 4 1 2
Jay Dantzler pr/lf...... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Michael Fisher ss........ 3 1 1 1 0 1 0 2 2
Matt Wieters c/p......... 3 1 1 1 2 0 6 0 0
Wally Crancer dh/lf...... 5 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 1
Tony Plagman 1b.......... 4 1 1 1 1 1 9 0 2
Patrick Long 3b.......... 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 1 0
Chris House lf........... 4 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0
Nick Scherer c.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0
Jeff Ussery 2b........... 4 0 1 1 0 0 1 4 1
Ryan Turner p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
Jared Hyatt p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Tim Ladd p.............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Brad Rulon p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals................... 32 7 8 6 7 6 25 10 8
Miami 8 (20-14,7-8 ACC)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
Blake Tekotte cf......... 5 1 2 1 0 1 4 0 0
Roger Tomas 2b........... 4 2 2 0 1 0 1 5 0
Yonder Alonso 1b......... 3 2 1 2 1 0 13 0 1
Mark Sobolewski 3b....... 5 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0
Gus Menendez dh.......... 5 2 4 4 0 1 0 0 2
Dennis Raben rf.......... 4 0 2 0 0 1 1 0 0
Dave DiNatale lf......... 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2
Jason Hagerty c.......... 3 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 0
Richard O'Brien c....... 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
Ryan Jackson ss.......... 4 1 2 1 0 1 0 3 0
Enrique Garcia p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Teddy Kaufman p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
David Gutierrez p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
Danny Gil p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals................... 38 8 14 8 2 9 27 12 8
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Georgia Tech........ 111 102 100 - 7 8 0
Miami............... 000 031 301 - 8 14 2
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One out when winning run scored.
E - Tekotte,B(1); Hagerty,J(4). LOB - Georgia Tech 8; Miami 8. 2B - Plagman,
T.(6); Tekotte,B(7). HR - Wieters, M.(7); Alonso,Y(9); Menendez,G(1). HBP -
Alonso,Y. SH - Fisher, M.(4). SF - Payne, D.(2); Fisher, M.(4). SB - Fisher,
M.(7); Crancer, W.(1).
Georgia Tech IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP
--------------------------------------------------
Ryan Turner......... 5.2 9 4 4 0 5 26 26 83
Jared Hyatt......... 0.2 2 1 1 0 0 3 3 13
Tim Ladd............ 0.1 2 2 2 0 0 3 4 12
Brad Rulon.......... 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 7
Matt Wieters........ 1.1 1 1 1 2 3 5 7 27
Miami IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP
--------------------------------------------------
Enrique Garcia...... 4.0 5 4 2 3 2 16 20 84
Teddy Kaufman....... 1.0 1 2 2 1 2 4 5 26
David Gutierrez..... 3.1 2 1 1 3 1 10 15 52
Danny Gil........... 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 6
Kaufman faced two batters in the 6th.
Win - Gil,D (3-0). Loss - Wieters, M. (1-2). Save - None.
WP - Rulon, B.(5). HBP - by Ladd, T. (Alonso,Y). BK - Turner, R.(1); Garcia,E
2(3). PB - Hagerty,J 2(6). Inherited runners/scored: Hyatt, J. 2/1; Ladd, T.
1/1; Rulon, B. 1/0; Gutierrez,D 2/2; Gil,D 2/0. Pitches/strikes: Turner, R.
83/56; Hyatt, J. 13/7; Ladd, T. 12/7; Rulon, B. 7/5; Wieters, M. 27/14; Garcia,E
84/53; Kaufman,T 26/14; Gutierrez,D 52/32; Gil,D 6/4.
Umpires - HP: Morris Hodges, Jr. 1B: Jeff Head 3B: Mark Chapman
Start: 1:06 pm Time: 3:07 Attendance: 1733