Georgia Tech defeats Bisons 6-3 in NCAA Regional
NCAA.com |
(May 31) -- Georgia Tech defeats Bisons 6-3 in game two of the NCAA regionals. Check back soon for a wrap up of today's game or visit lipscombsports.com.
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Lipscomb Up-Ends Top Seed And Eighth National Seed Georgia In Opener
Click here to see pictures of the Lipscomb-Georgia game.
ATHENS, Ga. – In the opening game of the Athens Regional in the 2008 NCAA Division I Baseball Championships on Friday, the fourth-seeded Lipscomb Bisons upset top-seed and eighth national seed Georgia, 10-7.
“Wow. I don’t know where to start describing how proud I am of our guys,” Lipscomb head coach Jeff Forehand said. “Coming in here versus a team like Georgia all you want is a chance at the end. I didn’t know how to prepare for a regional because we have never been to a regional. I felt confident in our team after getting out of the first inning and battling back and scoring some runs. We really settled in, our pitching got better, we kept our composure and were able to battle back and win this huge game.”
With the win, Lipscomb (33-28) advances in the winner’s bracket of the Athens Regional and will face the winner of game two between second seed Georgia Tech and third seed Louisville Saturday at 7 p.m. ET. Georgia (35-22-1) falls to the loser’s bracket and will face the loser of game two Saturday at 3 p.m.
The Bisons, making their first NCAA Championships appearance, utilized a four run fifth inning that broke up a 4-4 tie en route to the victory. Lipscomb’s starting pitcher, sophomore Rex Brothers (4-5), earned the win after tossing 5.1 innings allowing six runs, just two earned, on nine hits, while Georgia’s starter, redshirt junior Stephen Dodson (5-4), suffered the loss after allowing eight runs in 4.2 innings. Junior Kyle Tognazzini worked the final 1.2 innings for Lipscomb allowing just one hit to earn his fourth save of the year.
Offensively, Lipscomb produced its 10 runs on 10 hits including three homeruns. Senior Blake Bratcher and sophomore Ryan Wilkins led the Bisons’ offensive attack. Bratcher went 2-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBI including the go-ahead RBI single in the fifth inning, while Wilkins went 1-for-4 with a two-run home run that capped the four-run fifth and proved to be the game-winning hit.
Georgia led the game 4-1 after the first inning, but Lipscomb battled back over the next two innings scoring a run in the second and two runs in the third to tie the contest. After breaking the tie with the four runs in the fifth, the Bisons added another run on a wild pitch in the sixth to extend the lead to 9-4.
In the bottom of the sixth, senior Ryan Peisel (3-for-5) provided Georgia with a two-out, two-run home run to right that cut the Lipscomb advantage to 9-6. Two innings later in the eighth, junior Gordon Beckham added an RBI single through the left side that left runners on first and second with one out for sophomore Rich Poythress. The rally was silenced, however, by Tognazzini, who induced a comeback groundball for an inning-ending double play.
Wilkins added an insurance run for Lipscomb in the ninth on a sacrifice fly. Bratcher scored the game’s final run after being hit by a pitch and moving around to third on a single from junior Shane Sanders.
POST GAME NOTES:
Lipscomb
Lipscomb’s win breaks a six-game losing streak for Atlantic Sun Conference schools in opening games. Prior to today, no A-Sun team has started 1-0 since UCF, as a three seed, defeated second seeded Oklahoma State, 7-3
Lipscomb is the first Atlantic Sun Conference representative making its first NCAA Tournament appearance as an A-Sun member since Jacksonville and Florida Atlantic in 1999
With Lipscomb’s win, schools making their first NCAA Tournament as an A-Sun member improve to 4-5
A-Sun fourth seeds improve to 10-28 in NCAA Tournament play
A-Sun fourth seeds against number one seeds improves to 2-7
The only win for an A-Sun fourth seed against a top seed at a regional, prior to today, came in 2003 when Stetson topped Georgia Tech 5-4 in Atlanta
A-Sun fourth seeds had not won a game at the NCAA Tournament since Stetson won twice in 2003, first defeating Georgia Tech, then beating third-seeded East Carolina before losing in the Regional Final
Today marked the second NCAA Tournament meeting between an A-Sun school and Georgia; the previous meeting occurred in 2006 when the Bulldogs eliminated Jacksonville 15-8 at Foley Field
The A-Sun improves to 7-20 against the Southeastern Conference
A-Sun schools have/had lost five straight to SEC opponents and had not defeated an SEC school since Florida Atlantic defeated Florida 4-3 in 2003
Georgia
Junior Bryce Massanari recorded his team-high 23rd, two-out RBI on a double in the bottom of the first; the hit also extended his current hitting streak to nine games
Ryan Peisel’s sixth inning home run was his eighth of the season, a career-high season home run total for the senior
For the first time this season, Georgia has lost four straight games
Georgia’s loss marks the fourth time the team has lost the opening game of a regional (1987, ’92, ’01). Georgia came back to win the regional in both 1987 in Atlanta and in 2001 in Athens. In both of those years, the Bulldogs advanced to the College World Series