McGuire (8-0) iced the Bulldog’s bats through seven innings, holding Georgia to just one run on four hits while striking out a career-high nine batters to pick up his team-leading eighth win of the season. Andrew Robinson retired the side in the eighth inning on just six pitches before Taylor Wood closed out the game by tossing the ninth.
Juniors Charlie Blackmon and Luke Murton paced the Yellow Jackets with three hits apiece. Both players went 3-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored against the Bulldogs. Blackmon, Murton and Brad Feltes all hit home runs to extend Tech’s streak to 16-straight games with a homer. It was the 21st time this season the Yellow Jackets have hit more than one home run in a game.
Each of Tech’s last nine runs were scored with two outs, including both run-scoring hits by Feltes, who went 2-for-5 with four RBI in the game.
Blackmon extended his hitting streak to 12 games when he reached on a leadoff single in the first inning. He moved to second when Luke Murton was hit by a pitch and scored the Jackets’ first run of the game on an RBI single by Derek Dietrich.
A solo home run by Murton pushed Tech’s lead to 2-0 in the third inning before the Bulldogs scratched for a run in the fourth.
McGuire tossed just nine pitches – all strikes – to cruise through the first inning and retired the first 10 batters he faced before giving up a one-out double to Matt Olson in the fourth. After McGuire struck out Gordon Beckham for the second out of the inning, Rich Poythress doubled home Olson for the Bulldogs’ lone run of the game.
A two-run single by Feltes pushed Tech’s lead to three runs in the fifth inning, and Tech scored three times in the sixth on a double by Murton and a fielding error by Ryan Peisel to push the score to 7-1.
Tech capped its scoring with a two-run home run by Blackmon in the seventh inning and a two-run homer from Feltes in the eighth.
Georgia starter Will Harvil (1-1) suffered his first loss of the season by yielding two runs on four hits in 2.1 innings of work.
The Jackets return to conference play this weekend when they host Clemson in Georgia Tech’s final home series of the season. Game times are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
2008 GEORGIA TECH BASEBALL
#25 Georgia Tech at #8 Georgia
May 7, 2008 at Athens, Ga. (Foley Field)
Georgia Tech 11 (34-14)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg.
------------------------------------------------------------
Charlie Blackmon rf...... 5 3 3 2 0 0 0 0 2 .372
Jay Dantzler ph/rf...... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .283
Jeff Rowland cf.......... 5 1 1 0 1 2 2 0 1 .350
Luke Murton dh........... 4 3 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 .359
Derek Dietrich ss........ 5 1 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 .341
Tony Plagman 1b.......... 5 1 2 0 0 2 7 1 0 .289
Brad Feltes 3b........... 5 1 2 4 0 1 0 3 5 .281
Patrick Long 3b......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 .244
Thomas Nichols 2b........ 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 .293
Chase Burnette lf........ 4 0 1 0 0 3 1 0 0 .270
Chris House lf.......... 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 .250
Cole Leonida c........... 3 1 0 0 1 1 12 0 0 .163
Deck McGuire p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -
Andrew Robinson p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -
Taylor Wood p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Totals................... 42 11 15 9 3 10 27 8 9
Georgia 1 (31-16-1)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg.
------------------------------------------------------------
Ryan Peisel 3b........... 4 0 0 0 0 3 1 1 0 .332
Matt Olson rf............ 4 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 .296
Gordon Beckham ss........ 4 0 1 0 0 1 4 2 0 .409
Rich Poythress 1b........ 4 0 1 1 0 1 3 1 0 .339
Bryce Massanari c........ 3 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 1 .297
Jake Crane c............ 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .357
Lyle Allen lf............ 3 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 0 .267
Robbie O'Bryan dh........ 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .263
Joey Lewis ph........... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 .243
Matt Cerione cf.......... 2 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 .259
Adam Fuller ph/cf....... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .167
David Thoms 2b........... 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 .071
Miles Starr 2b.......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Will Harvil p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Alex McRee p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Justin Grimm p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -
Steve Esmonde p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Nick Montgomery p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Justin Earls p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -
Dean Weaver p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Totals................... 32 1 5 1 0 11 27 6 6
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Georgia Tech........ 101 023 220 - 11 15 0
Georgia............. 000 100 000 - 1 5 2
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E - Peisel(13); Esmonde(1). DP - Georgia 1. LOB - Georgia Tech 9; Georgia 6.
2B - Murton, L.(20); Olson(7); Poythress(12). HR - Blackmon, C.(8); Murton, L.(10);
Feltes, B.(13). HBP - Murton, L.; Leonida, C.; Allen; Lewis. SB - Burnette, C.(2).
Georgia Tech IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA
--------------------------------------------------------
Deck McGuire........ 7.0 4 1 1 0 9 25 26 85 3.41
Andrew Robinson..... 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 6 3.74
Taylor Wood......... 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 4 5 16 5.27
Georgia IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA
--------------------------------------------------------
Will Harvil......... 2.1 4 2 2 0 2 10 12 45 3.37
Alex McRee.......... 1.2 2 0 0 0 3 7 7 34 4.08
Justin Grimm........ 1.0 2 2 2 1 0 5 6 28 7.20
Steve Esmonde....... 0.2 4 3 2 0 1 7 7 20 2.55
Nick Montgomery..... 1.1 1 2 2 1 3 5 6 30 5.08
Justin Earls........ 1.1 2 2 2 1 1 6 7 28 5.18
Dean Weaver......... 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 3 2.30
Win - McGuire, D. (8-0). Loss - Harvil (1-1). Save - None.
WP - Wood, T.(3). HBP - by Harvil 2 (Murton, Leonida); by McGuire, D. (Lewis);
by Wood, T. (Allen). Inherited runners/scored: Montgomery 2/0; Weaver 1/0.
Pitches/strikes: McGuire, D. 85/59; Robinson, A. 6/5; Wood, T. 16/9; Harvil 45/30;
McRee 34/25; Grimm 28/18; Esmonde 20/14; Montgomery 30/18; Earls 28/16; Weaver 3/3.
Umpires - HP: Steve Manders 1B: David Savage 3B: Ken Couch
Start: 7:07 pm Time: 2:50 Attendance: 3487
Weather: PCloudy, 80 deg, Wind-S-9mph