With the victory, the Yellow Jackets moved into a tie with Virginia for fifth place in the ACC Baseball standings, and the two teams will play the rubber game Saturday to break the tie. First pitch for Saturday’s game is at 12 p.m., with Zach Von Tersch taking the mound for the Yellow Jackets.
Friday’s game belonged to the Yellow Jacket hitters, who pounded out 14 runs on 19 hits, including five doubles, two triples and home run. Plagman went 3-for-5 with a two-run double, RBI triple and solo home run to lead the Yellow Jacket offense.
Virginia scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second when Phil Gosselin was hit by a pitch from Yellow Jacket starter Eddie Burns, stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Tyler Cannon.
Burns hit three batters in the game to raise his career total to 37, which breaks the record for most in a career by a Yellow Jacket pitcher, previously held by Chuck Crowder. Burns (7-4) limited Virginia to five runs on seven hits to earn his seventh win of the season.
Tech answered with three runs in the top of the third on an RBI double by Murton and Plagman’s two-run double. Murton’s double was his team-leading 24th of the season, which stands just three shy of tying the single-season record in Tech history. The Yellow Jacket junior went 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored in the game.
The Cavaliers tied the game in the bottom of the third inning on a two-run home run by Jeremy Farrell, but Tech scored four in the top of the fourth to take a 7-3 lead. Jason Garofalo reached on a leadoff single, moved to second on a balk by Virginia starter Pat McAnaney, advanced to third on a single by Jay Dantzler and scored on a sacrifice fly by Murton. Derek Dietrich was then hit by a pitch to move Dantzler to second base, and both runners scored on a two-run double by Feltes. Plagman followed with a triple for the Jackets’ final run of the frame.
Feltes finished 3-for-6 with three RBI and two runs scored.
After a solo home run from Franco Valdes and a run-scoring single by Greg Miclat pulled Virginia to within two runs of the Jackets in the bottom of the fourth inning, Tech plated four in the sixth to put the game out of reach. Dietrich, Feltes, Jason Haniger and Chris House all had run-scoring hits in the inning.
Haniger, Dantzler and Charlie Blackmon finished with two hits apiece.
Virginia scored twice in the bottom of the seventh and added a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Tech scored a run in each of the last three innings to hold off the Cavalier comeback. Murton hit a run-scoring single in the seventh, Plagman smacked his solo home run in the top of the eighth inning, and Patrick Long scored on a fielder’s choice by Jeff Rowland in the ninth to cap the Jackets’ scoring at 14 runs. McAnaney (4-4) took the loss after giving up six runs on eight hits in 3.2 innings. Virginia’s pitching staff of McAnaney, Andrew Carraway , Kevin Arico and Robert Poutier combined to record 11 strikeouts on the night.
2008 GEORGIA TECH BASEBALL #25 Georgia Tech at Virginia May 16, 2008 at Charlottesville, Va. (Davenport Field) Georgia Tech 14 (37-17,15-14 ACC) Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg. ------------------------------------------------------------ Charlie Blackmon rf...... 5 1 2 0 1 2 3 0 0 .381 Jay Dantzler cf.......... 4 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 .303 Jeff Rowland ph/cf...... 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 .339 Luke Murton dh........... 4 2 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 .358 Derek Dietrich ss........ 4 2 1 1 1 1 3 2 2 .332 Brad Feltes 3b........... 6 2 3 3 0 2 2 3 2 .285 Tony Plagman 1b.......... 5 1 3 4 0 1 10 0 0 .306 Jason Haniger c.......... 5 1 2 1 0 0 8 2 1 .317 Chris House lf........... 5 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 2 .245 Jason Garofalo 2b........ 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 .214 Patrick Long ph/2b...... 2 2 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 .256 Eddie Burns p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Kevin Jacob p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Chris Hicks p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Brad Rulon p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Totals................... 44 14 19 14 4 11 27 10 9 Virginia 8 (36-18,15-14 ACC) Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg. ------------------------------------------------------------ Greg Miclat ss........... 5 0 2 1 0 0 3 1 2 .324 David Coleman rf......... 2 1 0 0 2 0 3 0 1 .268 David Adams 2b........... 5 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 .286 Jeremy Farrell 1b........ 4 2 2 3 1 2 5 0 1 .326 Dan Grovatt lf........... 4 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 .331 Phil Gosselin dh......... 4 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 .294 Franco Valdes c.......... 4 1 2 2 0 1 11 1 2 .248 Ryan Smith c............ 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 .180 John Barr cf............. 3 1 2 1 0 0 3 0 0 .322 Tyler Cannon 3b.......... 3 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 .264 Pat McAnaney p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Andrew Carraway p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - Kevin Arico p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Robert Poutier p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Totals................... 35 8 13 8 4 7 27 5 8 Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Georgia Tech........ 003 404 111 - 14 19 1 Virginia............ 012 200 201 - 8 13 0 ------------------------------------------- E - Haniger, J.(6). DP - Georgia Tech 1. LOB - Georgia Tech 9; Virginia 8. 2B - Murton, L.(24); Feltes, B.(6); Plagman, T.(8); Haniger, J.(12); Long, P.(6); Grovatt, D.(19). 3B - Dietrich, D.(2); Plagman, T.(1). HR - Plagman, T.(16); Farrell, J. 2(11); Valdes, F.(2). HBP - Dietrich, D.; Coleman, D.; Gosselin, P.; Barr, J.. SH - Cannon, T.(7). SF - Murton, L.(4). SB - Blackmon, C.(21); Coleman, D.(9); Gosselin, P.(6). CS - House, C.(2); Miclat, G.(6); Coleman, D.(5). Georgia Tech IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA -------------------------------------------------------- Eddie Burns......... 5.0 7 5 5 3 2 18 25 86 5.48 Kevin Jacob......... 2.0 5 2 2 1 2 10 11 49 4.61 Chris Hicks......... 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 10 6.26 Brad Rulon.......... 1.0 1 1 1 0 2 4 4 18 3.68 Virginia IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA -------------------------------------------------------- Pat McAnaney........ 3.2 8 6 6 2 6 18 22 87 3.09 Andrew Carraway..... 2.0 6 5 5 1 2 12 13 50 3.98 Kevin Arico......... 1.1 2 1 1 0 2 5 5 21 4.15 Robert Poutier...... 2.0 3 2 2 1 1 9 10 32 5.79 Win - Burns, E. (7-4). Loss - McAnaney, P. (4-4). Save - None. WP - Jacob, K.(4). HBP - by Burns 3 (Coleman, Gosselin, Barr); by McAnaney, P. (Dietrich, D.). BK - McAnaney, P.(2). Inherited runners/scored: Carraway, A. 2/2; Arico, K. 1/0. Pitches/strikes: Burns, E. 86/50; Jacob, K. 49/28; Hicks, C. 10/7; Rulon, B. 18/10; McAnaney, P. 87/53; Carraway, A. 50/36; Arico, K. 21/16; Poutier, R. 32/18. Umpires - HP: Paul Guillie 1B: Bruce Ravan 3B: Bryant Woodall Start: 6:00 pm Time: 3:30 Attendance: 1844 Weather: P.Cloudy, 66 deg, Wind- NW 15mph