FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES
Georgia Tech 10 NC State 9
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Georgia Tech scored eight runs over the last three innings, including two runs without the benefit of a base hit in the top of the ninth, for a wild and entertaining 10-9 win over NC State in the opening game of the 2008 ACC Baseball Tournament at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
The 3-hour, 50-minute game – the first of four tournament games here Thursday – saw the two teams combine for 28 base hits, 26 strikeouts, 19 runs, eight errors, three wild pitches, two hit batsmen and four lead changes.
Trailing 9-8 in the top of the ninth inning, Georgia Tech scored a pair of runs when three different NC State infielders committed errors on consecutive plays. Chase Burnette and Patrick Long scored the tying and go-ahead runs, respectively, on State’s third straight miscue, this one on a ground ball by Jason Haniger.
GT Recap
NC State Recap
Miami (FL) 7 Clemson 1
Jacksonville, Fla. – Mark Sobolewski doubled home two runs in the first inning to give starting pitcher Chris Hernandez all the run support he would need as top-seeded Miami beat Clemson 7-1 Wednesday in the Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament, at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
Hernandez (11-0), the ACC leader in victories and winning percentage, faced the minimum number of batters over the first five and one-thirds innings and went on to strike out 10 and allow four hits and no walks in eight scoreless innings. He has a streak of 27 two-thirds innings without allowing a base on balls.
Hernandez benefited from three double plays, two which erased the only base runners Clemson managed through five innings.
Miami (FL) Recap
Clemson Recap
FSU 8 Wake Forest 3
Tallahassee, Fla. – Fourth-ranked Florida State (47-9) grabbed an 8-3 victory over Wake Forest (24-30) Wednesday night in the first game of the 2008 ACC Baseball Championship at the Baseball Grounds in Jacksonville, Fla. The Seminoles continued their success against the Demon Deacons in the tournament winning for the fifth straight time while pushing their all-time record to 9-3 in the championship. FSU also remains perfect against Wake in ACC Tournament games played in Florida improving to 4-0.
“It’s always encouraging to play solid baseball on the first day,” explained head coach Mike Martin. “In this game, we know that we must have a short memory. We can’t dwell on what happened tonight. We are going to play a very good Virginia team Friday night. We also know that we played pretty well the first game last year and then got beat the next two. Overall, I thought it was a well played baseball game by our club.”
UNC 8 UVA 7 FINAL (11 innings)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – John Barr scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the top of the 11th inning, then made a diving catch of a blooper hit to centerfield with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th to end the game and give seventh-seeded Virginia an 8-7 victory over No. 3 seed North Carolina early Thursday morning in the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
After Barr walked in the 11th, went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Tyler Cannon, to third on a ground out and home on the wild pitch, the eventual winning run came when David Adams singled home David Coleman.
Michael Schwimer, the ACC’s save leader, blew only his second save opportunity of the season in the ninth inning, failed to protect another lead in the 10th, but got the victory to improve his record to 3-1. He gave up an RBI single in the bottom of the 11th to Tim Fedroff, and was backed up by Barr’s game-ending catch on a soft pop to short center by Chad Flack.
Flack had tied the game at 6-6 with a solo homer off Schwimer in the bottom of the 10th.
The Tar Heels (45-11), ranked first in three of the four major college baseball polls, led 4-3 entering the ninth. Virginia (37-19) rallied to take a 5-4 lead, highlighted by Barr’s RBI single.
North Carolina tied it in the bottom of the ninth on Dustin Ackley’s RBI triple.
Under the divisional round-robin format, Virginia will play Florida State on Friday at 5 p.m., while North Carolina will face Wake Forest at 8 p.m.
