April 14, 2007

Adams Walk-Off Homer Stings Tech 7-6

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - David Adams belted a three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to give No. 5 Virginia (31-8, 11-6 ACC) a 7-6 win over Georgia Tech (22-14, 10-7 ACC) on Saturday afternoon at Davenport Field on the campus of the University of Virginia.

Adams collected his third hit of the game when he sent the fourth pitch that he saw off Yellow Jacket closer Danny Payne into the left field seats to score Sean Doolittle and Brandon Guyer, who had reached on a walk and hit by pitch after two outs were recorded.

Pat McAnaney (2-0) earned the win by tossing the final three innings for the Cavaliers. He held the Jackets scoreless while giving up just one hit and striking out four.

Catcher Matt Wieters led the Jackets offensively, going 2-for-3 with a pair of walks, an RBI and a run scored. Danny Payne and Tony Plagman also collected two hits each.

Michael Fisher’s third-inning RBI single stretched his hitting streak to a season-high 14 games, and the Yellow Jacket shortstop finished 1-for-3 with two walks, an RBI and two runs scored.

Virginia scored the first run of the game for the second-straight day on a solo home run by Brandon Marsh in the bottom of the first inning, but Georgia Tech posted a pair of runs in the top of the third to take a 2-1 lead. Brad Feltes led off the inning with a triple and scored on an RBI single by Fisher to tie the game at 1-1. With runners on first and second, Wally Crancer then grounded out to first baseman Greg Miclat, who stepped on the bag and tried to throw out Wieters, who was running to second after earning a walk, but instead threw the ball into left field, scoring Fisher from second base.

The Cavaliers answered with two runs in the bottom of the third to regain the lead, 3-2. Miclat started the Virginia offense with a one-out single and moved to third on a single by Marsh. A sacrifice fly by Sean Doolittle then plated Miclat to tie the game before David Adams’ RBI single up the middle scored Marsh for the Cavaliers’ third run of the game.

Danny Payne singled to lead off the fifth inning and Fisher followed with a walk to chase Virginia starter Matt Packer from the game. Matt Wieters then roped the first pitch he saw off reliever Michael Schwimer into right-center field for an RBI double, tying the game at 3-3, before an RBI groundout by Crancer and an RBI double by Tony Plagman pushed the score to 5-3 in favor of the Yellow Jackets.

Georgia Tech added a run in the sixth when Crancer earned a bases-loaded walk, but Brandon Guyer walked with the bases loaded in the seventh inning to pull Virginia to within two runs, 6-4.

Yellow Jacket starter Eddie Burns gave up three runs on seven hits in four innings of work, but did not factor into the decision. Payne dropped to 0-2 on the season after giving up the home run in the ninth.

The Yellow Jackets and Cavaliers will wrap up the series Sunday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. The game can be followed on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv) and WREK-Radio (91.1 FM/www.wrek.org).

-30-
                2007 GEORGIA TECH BASEBALL
               Georgia Tech at #5 Virginia
 April 14, 2007 at Charlottesville, Va. (Davenport Field)

Georgia Tech 6 (22-14,10-7 ACC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB  Avg.
------------------------------------------------------------
Danny Payne cf/p.........  4  1  2  0   1  0  4  0   0  .375
Michael Fisher ss........  3  2  1  1   2  1  1  1   0  .367
Matt Wieters c...........  3  1  2  1   2  0  7  3   0  .338
Wally Crancer dh.........  4  0  0  2   1  1  0  0   2  .326
 Jay Dantzler lf.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0  .091
Luke Murton rf...........  5  0  1  0   0  2  4  0   3  .240
 Curtis Dupart rf........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0  .208
Tony Plagman 1b..........  4  0  2  1   0  2  3  0   0  .314
Chris House lf/cf........  5  0  1  0   0  3  2  0   1  .235
Patrick Long 2b..........  4  1  1  0   0  1  5  1   1  .288
Brad Feltes 3b...........  3  1  1  0   0  2  0  2   2  .185
Eddie Burns p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Andrew Robinson p.......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Brad Rulon p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0     -
Totals................... 35  6 11  5   6 12 26  8  10

Virginia 7 (31-8,11-6 ACC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB  Avg.
------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Miclat 1b...........  4  1  1  0   0  1  8  0   1  .399
Brandon Marsh rf.........  3  2  2  1   2  0  1  0   0  .289
Sean Doolittle dh........  3  1  1  1   1  2  0  0   0  .297
Brandon Guyer lf.........  3  1  1  1   1  1  2  1   0  .429
David Adams 2b...........  5  1  3  4   0  0  1  2   3  .347
Beau Seabury c...........  4  0  1  0   0  0 11  2   2  .276
Patrick Wingfield 3b.....  3  0  0  0   1  1  1  1   0  .312
Tyler Cannon ss..........  4  1  2  0   0  0  0  2   1  .296
Tim Henry cf.............  3  0  0  0   0  2  3  0   1  .262
Matt Packer p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0  .000
 Michael Schwimer p......  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Jake Rule p.............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0     -
 Alex Smith p............  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Pat McAnaney p..........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
Totals................... 32  7 11  7   5  7 27  9   8

Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
Georgia Tech........ 002 031 000 -  6 11  0
Virginia............ 102 000 103 -  7 11  1
-------------------------------------------

Two outs when winning run scored

E - Miclat(7). DP - Virginia 1. LOB - Georgia Tech 10; Virginia 8. 2B -
Wieters, M.(11); Plagman, T.(7); House, C.(2). 3B - Feltes, B.(1). HR -
Marsh(3); Adams(3). HBP - Plagman, T.; Guyer; Henry. SH - Feltes, B.(2);
Miclat(2). SF - Doolittle(5). CS - Fisher, M.(2); Marsh(2); Doolittle(3);
Adams(2).

Georgia Tech           IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF  NP   ERA
--------------------------------------------------------
Eddie Burns.........  4.0  7  3  3  2  2 17 20  72  2.74
Andrew Robinson.....  2.0  2  1  1  0  1  6  7  24  7.71
Brad Rulon..........  2.0  1  0  0  2  3  6  9  37  4.23
Danny Payne.........  0.2  1  3  3  1  1  3  5  18  5.23

Virginia               IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF  NP   ERA
--------------------------------------------------------
Matt Packer.........  4.0  7  4  4  2  5 18 20  97  3.75
Michael Schwimer....  1.0  2  1  1  0  2  5  5  21  2.92
Jake Rule...........  0.2  1  1  1  2  1  2  5  19  2.61
Alex Smith..........  0.1  0  0  0  1  0  1  3  11  3.00
Pat McAnaney........  3.0  1  0  0  1  4  9 10  55  2.20

Packer faced two batters in the 5th.
Burns faced one batter in the 5th.
Smith faced one batter in the 7th.
Robinson faced one batters in the 7th.

Win - McAnaney (2-0).  Loss - Payne, D. (0-2).  Save - None.
WP - Rule(3). HBP - by Smith (Plagman, T.); by Robinson, A. (Henry); by Payne,
D. (Guyer). Inherited runners/scored: Robinson, A. 1/0; Rulon, B. 2/1; Schwimer
2/2; Smith 3/1; McAnaney 1/0. Pitches/strikes: Burns, E. 72/46; Robinson, A.
24/14; Rulon, B. 37/23; Payne, D. 18/10; Packer 97/60; Schwimer 21/13; Rule
19/9; Smith 11/3; McAnaney 55/34.
Umpires - HP: David Pritchett  1B: Harry Greer  3B: Gerald Trexler
Start: 1:05 pm   Time: 3:19   Attendance: 1744