Quote:FSU 102 404 123 17 14 0
GT 000 020 000 2 6 3

W - Henry (14-0) L - Turner (5-4) S - Burge (1)

Seminoles stomp the Yellow Jackets
by Drew Hankin

After losing their last eleven regular season games to Georgia Tech, something finally had to give for the #3 ranked Florida State Seminoles on Thursday night in the series opener in Atlanta, and it was the Yellow Jacket pitching staff. The Noles trounced the Tech pitchers for seventeen runs, the Tribe's second highest run total in ACC play this season. Bryan Henry (14-0) and Travis Burge kept the GT batters in check, while the FSU offense cranked out run after run.

Henry was pretty much his usual dominating self, giving up just two runs on six hits in six innings of work. He did walk three batters though, and struck out five. Travis Burge pitched the remaining three innings for the Seminoles and was near perfect, allowing just one base runner on a walk in the bottom of the ninth to earn his first save of the season.

Yellow Jacket pitching was no mystery for Florida State from the first inning of the game when three base hits by Mark Hallberg, Buster Posey, and Jack Rye loaded the bases before a sacrifice fly by Travis Anderson gave the Seminoles a 1-0 lead.

FSU extended their lead two innings later when back to back errors by shortstop Michael Fisher put runners on second and third with two outs before a single to left by Jason Stidham plated two more runs for the Noles.

The scoring barrage continued in the top of the fourth with four more runs for Florida State. Ruairi O'Connor led off and was hit by a pitch before Tony Thomas Jr's twenty-ninth double of the season brought him home. After Hallberg walked, he and Thomas executed a double steal, and Posey was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. A Rye singled up the middle scored two more runs before a double by Stidham scored the final run of inning and gave the Noles a 7-0 cushion.

Leading 7-2 in the top of the sixth, FSU once again pounded out four more runs. Rye led the inning off with a walk and to second when Travis Anderson singled to right. After Stidham was hit by a pitch to load the ases with no outs, Mark Gildea flew out to enable Rye to score. O'Connor then singled in Anderson, and Thomas' second double of the game brought home two more runs and gave the Tribe an 11-2 lead.

Stidham made in 12-2 in the top of the seventh with his fourth home run of the season.

Two more runs came in for Florida State in the next inning when a Posey double brought home Thomas and Hallberg.

The Noles put the finishing touches on the rout in the top of the ninth with three more runs. With one out, Stidham reached on an infield single, his fourth hit of the game, before D'Vontrey Richardson and Ohmed Danesh walked to load the bases. A walk to Brandon Reichert plated the first run, and the final two scored on an throwing error by the Tech second baseman.

Every Seminole starter other than Gildea had at least one hit in the game, with Thomas, Hallberg, Rye, Posey, and Stidham each having multi-hit days.

Florida State improved to 44-9 on the season, and 22-6 in the ACC while the Yellow Jackets fell to 31-21 and 15-13 in the Conference. Game two of the series is scheduled for Friday night at 7:00 with Michael Hyde (9-2, 3.37 ERA) on the hill for the Noles against David Duncan (6-3, 3.34 ERA) for Georgia Tech.

Section B Online Players of the Game:
Bryan Henry (6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K)
and
Jason Stidham (4-5, 3 R, 4 RBI, 2B, HR)