Baseball tops UGA, sweeps FSU

The No. 4 Jackets (29-7, 16-2 ACC) swept the No. 17 Florida St. Seminoles for the second consecutive year. Tech becomes the first team to beat the Seminoles six consecutive times in the regular season since they joined the ACC.

"I saw it every year," Head Coach Danny Hall said. "If you want to finish at the top of our league, you have to play well against Florida St."

Last year it got us going, and this keeps us on top of the league. I'm very proud of the way our guys have been playing."

Every year since 1995 either Tech or FSU has won the ACC regular season crown. After this weekend, the Jackets have solidified themselves at the top of the ACC standings and increased their lead to two games over No. 5 Miami.

The Jackets have now won 13 consecutive regular season conference games. Tech has gone an astounding 32-2 in the last 34 regular season conference games and is 19-1 at home in that stretch.

"That's incredible," Hall said. "It just says that we've played excellent for the last period of time in our league play."

Tech took the first game of the weekend by beating FSU 6-4. The Jackets put the first three on the board in the second inning, but FSU responded with three unearned runs in the top of the third, taking advantage of errors by Steven Blackwood and Wes Hodges to tie the game.

After getting two quick outs in the bottom of the sixth, Hodges doubled and Jeremy Slayden was walked. Matt Wieters took advantage of having runners on base by hitting his fifth home run of the season to left field.

Sophomore Lee Hyde picked up his fifth win this year, going six and two-thirds innings and allowing three unearned runs on seven hits while striking out seven.

The Jackets needed some more of that ninth inning magic to take the second game of the series from the Seminoles. The Jackets had a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning before giving up two runs in each of the next three innings. After the top of the seventh inning, the Jackets were losing 8-5. Tech added a run in their half of the inning to close the deficit to two.

After FSU's Tyler Chambliss struck out the first four Tech hitters he faced, Jeremy Slayden started the rally in the ninth with a single to right. Chambliss walked the next three Jackets before striking out Mike Trapani. Freshman outfielder Danny Payne came through with a single through the middle to cap off the three-run rally and give the Jackets the win.

"I was fortunate enough to be put into the situation," Payne said. "The guys before me did their job so that I could get up there and do mine. The main thing that we tried to do was to foul off enough pitches and wait for him to make a mistake and then hit it."

Jared Hyatt picked up the win as the fourth pitcher for Tech. He pitched a perfect two and two-thirds innings to end the game.

The Jackets came out fast and furious in the series finale. Tech defeated FSU 9-4 in a game that from the beginning was never really in doubt. Tech put two runs on the board in the first and sealed the game with a four-run sixth inning.

"I was worried about my team [Sunday]," Hall said. "You win a big emotional game like that and you've already won the series. I was concerned about how hungry we would be. Blake Wood had a great first inning and Blackwood hit a home run to get us going."

Hall's concerns were soon put at ease. The Jacket bats started where they left off from Saturday's game.

Blackwood fouled off several pitches, and on the 13th pitch of the at bat he finally found something he liked and went yard. Blackwood's fifth homerun of the season ricocheted off the right-field speaker tower.

"He just kept throwing me fastballs inside," Blackwood said. "I swung at a few curveballs in the dirt, and luckily I fouled them off to stay alive. He left a fastball a bit over the plate. I was trying to go opposite field with it, and I took it out of the park."

After going 0-5 with four strikeouts in the first two games, Mike Trapani broke open the floodgates going 3-3 with two RBIs and making several key defensive plays for the Jackets.

"I had a rough one all night," Trapani said. "It's hard to sleep at night when you come in with a chance to win the game and don't even take the bat off of your shoulder. The coaches got onto me a little bit. That's the best thing about baseball. You're going to fail but you have to get over it and move on."

"He's a tough kid and very competitive," Hall said. "He came in today and was determined to have a good day. That double play ball in the eighth inning was huge, and he got some clutch hits for us."

The Jackets also looked good in a midweek contest against Georgia, prevailing by the score of 12-2 against the Bulldogs.

Ryan Turner pitched six strong innings in the win against UGA, allowing only a single run on four hits for the victory.

Tim Gustafson followed Turner with a pair of shutout frames, and Tim Ladd pitched the final stanza of the contest.

The offense took a while to get going, but the Jackets exploded for four runs in the seventh and eight innings to take a commanding lead.

Wieters continued his impressive freshman campaign with a home run and five RBIs to pace the team offensively.

Shortstop Tyler Greene also had three hits, including a home run in the game, and Blackwood drove in three runs.

"I was here last year for the Super Regional and saw them dog piling on our field," Payne said before his first matchup against UGA.

"Ever since then I've been anxious to play. I've heard stories about the games between our clubs and I can't wait to play them," he said.

The game between Tech and UGA was the first of the teams' three-game series for bragging rights between the rivals.

Large crowds have become the norm for games between the two teams, and Wednesday night was no different. 3130 were in attendance to watch the Jackets defeat their rival.

Tech will be on the road the next two weekends with conference games at Virginia and Clemson. Tech will also be playing Georgia on Tuesday at Turner Field and then on Wednesday in Athens.