The win by Tech (37-18-1) forced a second championship game against USM (37-24) Monday night at 7 p.m. The winner of that game advances to a super regional next week against Florida, the winner of the regional in Gainesville, Fla. Tech had eliminated Elon, 8-4, earlier in the day.
The Yellow Jackets can advance to their sixth super regional with a win Monday night. The Golden Eagles are attempting to win their first regional title, having lost in the championship round on three previous occasions. Tech, which improved to 3-6 in elimination games in NCAA regionals since 2000 (21-19 all-time), are 1-1 in "if necessary" games, and is attempting to win a regional out of the loser's bracket for the first time.
Tech used the long ball to jump ahead early, scoring three times in the first against USM starter Jeff Stanley (4-2) on Luke Murton's solo home run, his 20th of the season, and a two-run blast from Jay Dantzler, his fifth. Southern Miss answered with two in the bottom half of the frame on Michael Ewing's sacrifice fly and an RBI single from Joey Archer.
Cole Leonida hit a solo homer, his fifth of the season, with two outs in the second to give the Yellow Jackets a 4-2 lead. The three home runs increased its season total to 110, the second-highest total in team history.
2009 NCAA ATLANTA REGIONAL
#13 Georgia Tech at Southern Miss
May 31, 2009 at Atlanta, Ga. (Russ Chandler Stadium)
Georgia Tech 10 (38-18-1)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
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Jeff Rowland cf.......... 6 1 1 1 0 1 3 1 0
Chris House lf........... 4 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1
Luke Murton rf........... 4 1 1 1 1 2 3 0 0
Tony Plagman 1b.......... 4 1 2 1 0 0 10 0 2
Jay Dantzler dh.......... 2 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0
Chase Burnette ph....... 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0
Matt Skole 3b............ 4 1 1 1 1 1 0 2 0
Derek Dietrich ss........ 5 1 2 1 0 0 1 3 5
Jason Garofalo 2b........ 3 1 0 0 0 0 2 5 1
Cole Leonida c........... 2 2 1 2 2 0 7 0 0
Andrew Robinson p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Thomas Nichols p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Totals................... 36 10 12 10 6 6 27 12 9
Southern Miss 3 (37-24)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
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Bo Davis cf.............. 3 0 0 0 1 1 5 0 0
James Ewing 2b........... 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
Kameron Brunty lf........ 4 1 2 0 0 0 5 0 3
Corey Stevens dh......... 3 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0
Michael Ewing rf......... 3 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0
Joey Archer 1b........... 4 0 2 1 0 0 7 1 0
B.A. Vollmuth ss......... 4 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 3
Travis Graves c.......... 3 0 1 0 0 0 4 3 1
Kyle Maxie ph........... 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Taylor Walker 3b......... 3 0 1 0 0 2 1 2 0
Adam Doleac ph.......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Jeff Stanley p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Kyle Lindsey p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Moses Munoz p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Jonathan Johnston p..... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Seth Hester p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Totals................... 33 3 9 3 2 6 27 9 7
Score by Innings R H E
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Georgia Tech........ 310 003 003 - 10 12 0
Southern Miss....... 200 000 001 - 3 9 3
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E - Ewing, M(3); Vollmuth(6); Lindsey(4). DP - Georgia Tech 1.
LOB - Georgia Tech 9; USM 7. 2B - Skole, M.(13). HR - Murton, L.(20);
Dantzler, J.(5); Leonida, C.(5); Maxie(4). HBP - Garofalo, J.; Davis, B..
SH - Garofalo, J.(3); Leonida, C.(1). SF - Plagman, T.(3); Ewing, M(2).
SB - Dantzler, J.(5). CS - House, C.(3).
Georgia Tech IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP
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Andrew Robinson..... 5.0 7 2 2 2 3 19 22 86
Thomas Nichols...... 4.0 2 1 1 0 3 14 15 71
Southern Miss IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP
--------------------------------------------------
Jeff Stanley........ 3.2 5 4 4 3 1 16 19 78
Kyle Lindsey........ 1.1 1 2 1 1 2 5 8 28
Moses Munoz......... 0.0 2 1 0 0 0 2 2 5
Jonathan Johnston... 3.0 3 2 2 2 3 10 13 59
Seth Hester......... 1.0 1 1 0 0 0 3 4 11
Lindsey faced two batters in the 6th.
Munoz faced two batters in the 6th.
Johnston faced two batters in the 9th.
Win - Robinson, A. (1-0). Loss - Stanley (4-2). Save - Nichols, T. (1).
HBP - by Lindsey (Garofalo, J.); by Nichols, T. (Davis, B.). PB - Leonida,
C.(2). Inherited runners/scored: Lindsey 1/0; Munoz 2/2; Johnston 2/1; Hester
1/1. Pitches/strikes: Robinson, A. 86/53; Nichols, T. 71/45; Stanley 78/43;
Lindsey 28/16; Munoz 5/3; Johnston 59/30; Hester 11/8.
Umpires - HP: Heath Jones 1B: Tom Svehla 2B: Tony Norris 3B: Randy Bruns
Start: 7:25 pm Time: 3:09 Attendance: 1376
Weather: 86 deg, Partly Cloudy, NW 10