Baseball Loses to Georgia Tech 14-5

May 6, 1998

ATLANTA – Heath Honeycutt belted a grand slam and drove in five runs and starting pitcher L.J. Yankosky ran his record to 9-0 to lead Georgia Tech to a 14-5 Atlantic Coast Conference victory over Clemson at Russ Chandler Stadium, completing a three-game sweep of the fifth-ranked Tigers.

The sweep, Tech’s first over Clemson since 1993, improved the Jackets’ record to 35-17 overall and 12-8 in the ACC and vaulted Tech into a second-place tie in the ACC standings with Clemson and North Carolina, which are also 12-8. The Tigers fell to 40-11 overall.

Yankosky pitched six innings, allowing five runs, three of them earned, on seven hits with seven strikeouts and two walks to record his 23rd career win. Scott Prather struck out six over the final three innings to earn his first save. Clemson starter Mike Paradis (5-1), who walked five batters without recording an out, suffered his first loss.

Leading 5-2 in the fourth, the Jackets loaded the bases on a singles by Jahmal Overton and Prather and a fielding error by Clemson pitcher Matt White before Honeycutt blasted his first grand slam and 11th home run of the season. Tech scored twice more in the inning on two more Clemson errors, followed by three straight walks to Stephen Donaghey, Overton and Matthew Boggs.

After Clemson took a 2-0 lead on Matt Padgett’s two-run homer in the first inning, the Jackets scored three runs in the bottom of the first without benefit of a hit and then added single runs in the second on an RBI single by Prather and in the third on Derik Goffena’s solo homer, his 10th of the season.

Tech concludes the regular season with a three-game series at Maryland this weekend, while Clemson plays three at North Carolina.