The Yellow Jackets built a 13-5 lead through six-and-a-half innings, but Maryland scored twice in the seventh and plated four in the eighth before scoring three in the bottom of the ninth to win.
After Chris Hicks (0-3) retired the first batter of the ninth inning on a liner up the middle, Gerry Spessard was hit by a pitch and Bill Rice, A.J. Casario, Chad Durakis and Palumbo notched four-consecutive singles to hand the Tech closer his third loss of the season.
The Terrapins pulled within three runs of the Jackets when Will Greenberg plated three with a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Luke Murton tied a career high with four hits and Georgia Tech pounded out 18 hits against the Terrapins, but it wasn’t enough to get the win. He continued his torrid hitting with a 4-for-6 performance which included a home run and two doubles. The Yellow Jacket junior has gone 6-for-10 with two home runs and three doubles in the series and is hitting .600 (9-for-15) with four home runs, three doubles and seven RBI on the week.
Joining Murton with four hits on the day was leadoff hitter Charlie Blackmon, who went 4-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored while Jeff Rowland and Jay Dantzler added three hits apiece.
A sacrifice fly by Tony Plagman gave Georgia Tech a 4-3 lead in the top of the third inning before the Jackets added five in the fourth. Dantzler began the onslaught with a walk. He then stole second base and came around to score on back-to-back wild pitches from Maryland starter Brett Jones. A solo home run by Jason Haniger, run scoring single from Rowland, and two-run home run by Murton capped the scoring for the Jackets in the inning.
Brad Feltes doubled to lead off the fifth inning and came around to score on an RBI single by Dantzler to make the score 10-3 in the Jackets favor before a two-run single by Derek Dietrich pushed Tech’s lead to eight.
Maryland jumped on Eddie Burns early, as the first three batters he faced came around to score in the first inning. The Yellow Jacket starting pitcher settled down after that, retiring the next five batters he faced, and 12 of the next 13, before giving up a leadoff double to Durakis in the fifth inning. The Terrapin catcher came around to score Maryland’s second run of the game, making the score 10-4.
The Jackets and Terps will conclude the series Sunday in a game that will be nationally televised on CBS College Sports.
2008 GEORGIA TECH BASEBALL
#21 Georgia Tech at Maryland
April 19, 2008 at College Park, Md. (Shipley Field)
Georgia Tech 13 (27-12,9-11 ACC)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg.
------------------------------------------------------------
Charlie Blackmon rf...... 4 2 4 1 1 0 2 0 0 .362
Jeff Rowland cf.......... 6 1 3 2 0 1 4 0 0 .336
Derek Dietrich ss........ 4 2 2 2 1 1 5 1 1 .340
Luke Murton dh........... 6 1 4 2 0 2 0 0 1 .376
Tony Plagman 1b.......... 3 0 0 1 1 1 8 1 3 .262
Brad Feltes 3b........... 4 2 1 0 1 3 0 2 1 .275
Patrick Long 3b......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 .205
Thomas Nichols 2b........ 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 3 2 .283
Jay Dantzler lf.......... 4 3 3 2 1 0 2 0 2 .308
Jason Haniger c.......... 5 1 1 1 0 1 2 1 0 .278
Eddie Burns p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -
Kevin Jacob p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -
Taylor Wood p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Chris Hicks p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -
Totals................... 40 13 18 11 6 9 25 10 10
Maryland 14 (24-17,7-13 ACC)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg.
------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Braun 2b........... 4 3 2 1 1 0 2 4 1 .272
Will Greenberg 1b........ 5 1 3 4 0 0 10 1 0 .276
Jensen Pupa dh........... 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 .319
Mike Murphy 3b........... 5 1 2 1 0 0 0 3 1 .292
Gerry Spessard lf........ 3 2 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 .260
Nick Jowers cf........... 3 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 .344
Bill Rice ph/rf......... 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .279
Mike Rozak pr........... 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000
AJ Casario rf/cf......... 5 2 2 2 0 0 1 0 1 .265
Chad Durakis c........... 3 1 1 0 0 0 7 1 0 .324
Mike Moss c............. 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 .273
Curtis Lazar ph......... 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .400
Joe Palumbo ss........... 4 1 2 2 1 0 2 1 0 .279
Brett Jones p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Eric Potter p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -
Mike Sufczynski p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Brett Harman p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Tim Kearney p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Matt Quinn p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Brett Tidball p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Brad Taylor p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Adam Kolarek p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Totals................... 41 14 18 12 2 2 27 12 6
Score by Innings R H E
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Georgia Tech........ 031 512 100 - 13 18 2
Maryland............ 300 011 243 - 14 18 2
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One out when winning run scored.
E - Dietrich, D.(10); Dantzler, J.(1); Braun, S.(7); Moss, M.(1).
DP - Maryland 1. LOB - Georgia Tech 10; Maryland 6. 2B - Blackmon, C.(10);
Rowland, J.(6); Murton, L. 2(13); Feltes, B.(5); Dantzler, J.(3); Pupa,
J.(12); Spessard, G.(7); Durakis, C.(14). 3B - Spessard, G.(3).
HR - Murton, L.(8); Haniger, J.(4); Greenberg, W(3); Murphy, M.(10).
HBP - Blackmon, C.; Plagman, T.; Spessard, G.. SF - Plagman, T.(3); Spessard, G.(3).
SB - Blackmon, C. 2(15); Dantzler, J.(5). CS - Blackmon, C.(4); Rowland, J.(3);
Murphy, M.(3). Reached on CI - Dietrich, D..
Georgia Tech IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA
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Eddie Burns......... 6.1 10 7 6 1 2 27 29 86 4.78
Kevin Jacob......... 1.1 3 4 3 1 0 7 8 27 5.31
Taylor Wood......... 0.1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 6 5.40
Chris Hicks......... 0.1 4 3 3 0 0 5 6 12 5.19
Maryland IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA
--------------------------------------------------------
Brett Jones......... 3.1 5 6 5 4 4 13 18 69 5.87
Eric Potter......... 0.2 3 3 3 1 1 4 5 21 10.38
Mike Sufczynski..... 1.1 5 3 3 0 0 7 9 28 6.20
Brett Harman........ 1.0 2 1 1 0 1 5 5 18 4.76
Tim Kearney......... 1.1 1 0 0 1 2 5 6 25 3.68
Matt Quinn.......... 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2.67
Brett Tidball....... 0.1 2 0 0 0 0 3 4 11 3.98
Brad Taylor......... 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 2.81
Adam Kolarek........ 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 5 4.34
Win - Kolarek, A. (2-1). Loss - Hicks, C. (0-3). Save - None.
WP - Jones, B. 2(5); Sufczynski(3); Kearney, T.(2). HBP - by Sufczynski
(Blackmon, C.); by Sufczynski (Plagman, T.); by Hicks, C. (Spessard, G.).
CI - Moss, M.. Inherited runners/scored: Jacob, K. 3/0; Wood, T. 3/3; Harman, B. 2/0;
Kearney, T. 2/1; Quinn, M. 2/0; Taylor, B. 3/0; Kolarek, A. 3/0.
Pitches/strikes: Burns, E. 86/60; Jacob, K. 27/15; Wood, T. 6/3; Hicks, C. 12/8;
Jones, B. 69/37; Potter, E. 21/10; Sufczynski 28/17; Harman, B. 18/11; Kearney,
T. 25/13; Quinn, M. 1/1; Tidball, B. 11/9; Taylor, B. 3/3; Kolarek, A. 5/3.
Umpires - HP: Greg Street 1B: Tom Baldinelli 3B: Tony Gisondi
Start: 3:59 pm Time: 3:08 Attendance: 405
Weather: P.Cloudy, 80 deg, Wind-SSE-13