Baseball falls from top spot

The Jackets keep on winning as they pulled out three of the four games this past week. Tech ' s only loss came in a pitcher ' s duel against Maryland that was sandwiched between two blowouts. The team avenged the loss to Auburn two weeks ago by returning the favor on their home field.

Tech opened up the weekend with a 13-4 lead against Maryland before the game was delayed in the top of the 5th inning because of the rain. When play resumed Maryland scored four runs to quickly close the gap, but the Jackets stopped the Terps and won 13-8.

Before the start of Saturday night ' s game, Head Coach Danny Hall was presented with a plaque and a ball signed by the team in honor of his 505th win at Tech.

In the nightcap, the Jackets and Terps traded first inning runs before the pitchers took over the game. Maryland added a go-ahead run in the third inning to take the lead.

Lee Hyde pitched what was quite possibly his best performance of the year, striking out 10 batters and giving up two runs off of six hits.

Unfortunately for him, the offense never was able to get over the hump and take the lead. Tech was unable to capitalize with runners in scoring position, leaving 11 runners on base. The 2-1 loss was the first home-loss to Maryland since 1993, and it also ended the Jackets ' 16-game winning streak over the Terps.

" I think your goal anytime you play in the ACC is to win the series, " Hall said. " That ' s a very positive thing. The game that we lost was just the case that [Ben] Pfinsgraff of Maryland pitched a great game, and we tipped our caps to him. He did everything that he could do to keep us from scoring. It ' s one of those deals that we felt that we would get to him but never could. That ' s the only disappointment on the weekend. It would ' ve been great to win all three, but we did win the series. "

" I thought [Lee Hyde ' s] performance was outstanding, " pitching coach Bobby Moranda said. " I thought his execution was really good. He made two mistakes, and that ' s very good for eight innings. One of those mistakes was just fluky. He threw a fastball to a left-handed hitter, and he hit the ball down the line where it rolled around for a bit. The kid on first base was able to run, which is how they scored the go-ahead run. I ' ll take that for the rest of the year with him. "

Tech responded by blowing out Maryland 24-4 in the series finale. The Jackets capitalized on five errors and scored four or more runs in four different innings. The offense was led by Tyler Greene, who hit his third grand slam of the season and drove in eight runs. The 20-run margin of victory was Tech ' s largest in ACC play since beating Virginia by 23 in 1998.

After losing to Auburn 7-6 in 11 innings previously, the Jackets returned the favor by beating the Tigers 3-2 on Tuesday. Auburn took a 2-1 lead in the first inning, but they did not score again for the rest of the night. Tech drove in a run in both the second and third innings to win the game.

" I was very pleased with [the win], " Hall said. " After the first inning, Ryan Turner really settled down and pitched well. Tim Gustafson came in and did a great job of putting zeros on the board, and then Matt Wieters pitched great to close it out. We made some great plays defensively to help the pitchers out. I think that Trapani made a couple of nice plays, and Danny Payne ' s diving catch in centerfield was huge, and then Andy Hawranick blocked a ball in the dirt and threw a guy out at second base to keep them from getting a guy in scoring position. It ' s great to go on the road and beat a very good team in Auburn. "

For the second time this season, Auburn used six pitchers against Tech to slow down one of the top hitting teams in the ACC. The Auburn bullpen has given up only two runs to Tech in 16 innings of work on the season.

" Auburn, twice now, has pitched a bunch of guys against us, " Hall said. " Sometimes you benefit as a team if you see a guy the second and third time through the order. Both times they ' ve kept us from getting much of a look against their pitchers. They ' ve done a great job of pitching against us. "

Tech will be hosting Winthrop in non-conference action this weekend before the team will go on the road to face rival UGA on Wednesday night.

" I think we better be prepared to play, " Hall said. " This non-conference team is one of the Top 50 in the country, and their number one pitcher is 7-0 with a win over Clemson. They are one of those teams that nobody knows a lot about, but those of us in college baseball know that they are very good. "