Senior Brad Feltes hit his third grand slam of the season as the Jackets pounded out 15 hits, 14 runs and took the win over in-state rival Georgia Southern in Statesboro on Wednesday, 14-8. Mid-week pitcher Deck McGuire moved to 6-0 with the win. McGuire pitched five innings and gave up three runs and two earned in the win. For the Eagles, Michael Hester (1-1) took the loss after giving up two runs in two innings.
Tech started the scoring quickly when Derek Dietrich homered with a runner on second base to make it 2-0. Southern twice had runners at second and third in the third and fourth inning but failed to score both times. Rowland bunted a single up the middle and stole second.
Dietrich reached on catcher’s interference and Plagman was walked intentionally with one out to bring up Feltes. He then took a 0-2 pitch over the right center-field wall for the grand slam.
But Southern was able to rebound and cut the score in half. Ty Wright doubled, then he scored with one out on Chris Sheehan’s single. Sheehan advance to second on a wild pitch and to third on Griffin Benedict’s single.
Shehan scored when Parker reached on an error by Derek Dietrich. Benedict moved to third on David Richardson’s single and scored on a balk by McGuire.
The Jackets scored one in the sixth and seventh innings but blew it open when junior Luke Murton hit a grand slam on the first pitch from Justin Davis.
In the bottom of the eighth, Phillip Porter drove in two runs with a single to right field. Shehan followed with an RBI single.
One out later, Will Southwell singled in a run and A. J. Wirnsberger hit a sac fly to score another. Richardson ended the rally when he grounded out to the second baseman. The Jackets put two more on the board in the top of the ninth.
The Jackets travel to College Park, Md. this week to take on the Terrapins of the University of Maryland. The Jacket hope to pick up a few more victories heading into the postseason games.
“The ACC is one of the best college baseball conferences in the nation. You never get a day off. You have got to go out a compete with every team pitch by pitch,” Feltes said.