Georgia Downs Tigers 4-1 Wednesday

April 6, 2005

Clemson, SC –

Georgia scored four runs in the first four innings and held off a ninth-inning rally to defeat Clemson 4-1 in front of 4,394 fans at Doug Kingsmore Stadium Wednesday. The Bulldogs improved to 17-12, while the Tigers dropped to 15-13. Georgia won the two-game, midweek series over the Tigers despite Clemson out-hitting them in both games.

Junior lefthander Mickey Westphal (2-0) pitched 7.0 scoreless innings, yielding only four hits and one walk to earn the win. Joshua Fields and Mitchell Boggs combined to limit the Tigers to one run in the final two innings to close out the Tigers. Sophomore righty Stephen Faris (2-1) pitched his first complete game as a Tiger, but his costly throwing error led to three unearned runs. The Richmond, VA native and ACC ERA leader allowed just five hits, one earned run, and three walks while striking out eight. It was the first complete game by a Tiger since 2004, when Robert Rohrbaugh threw a complete game (8.0 innings pitched) at Duke, ironically in another Clemson loss.

Left-fielder Jonathan Wyatt paced the Bulldogs with two hits, two RBIs, and some sterling defensive plays in left field. Stan Widmann was 2-for-4 for the Tigers and had Clemson’s lone RBI.

Georgia struck first in the top of the second. Brandon Lowe reached on a walk and later scored on Wyatt’s soft single to right-center.

The Bulldogs scored again in the fourth after a costly Tiger error. Josh Morris led off the inning with a single and went to second on a groundout by Lowe. Jason Jacobs then hit a comebacker to Faris, but his 35-foot throw was too high for first-baseman Andy D’Alessio, allowing Morris to score. Then with two outs, Wyatt and Kyle Keen, the eighth and ninth-place hitters in the batting order, hit back-to-back run-scoring doubles to give the Bulldogs a 4-0 lead.

Clemson appeared to get back into the game in the fourth inning when Taylor Harbin singled and Kris Harvey hit a would-be home run ball to left field, but Wyatt made a spectacular leaping catch to keep the ball in the park and the Tigers off the scoreboard. Harvey went 0-for-4 in the contest, ending his team-season-high 10-game hitting streak.

In the bottom of the ninth, Harbin led off with a walk and moved to second on Tyler Colvin’s infield single to second base. After Harvey struck out, Travis Storrer singled to center to load the bases. Widmann followed with a ground ball to Adam McDaniel at third. The Bulldogs retired Storrer at second, but Widmann just beat the throw at first to avoid the double play, as Harbin scored. D’Alessio then came to the plate as the tying run, but struck out on a 3-2 pitch out of the zone after fouling off five Mitchell Boggs two-strike offerings.

One night after Clemson and Georgia combined for 27 hits, the two teams combined for only 11 hits on Wednesday. In the two-game series, both Bulldog wins, Georgia scored 15 runs on 15 hits, while the Tigers managed just 11 runs on 23 hits. Clemson also left 17 runners on base in the two games, while Georgia left just 11. It was also Clemson’s first loss to Georgia at Doug Kingsmore Stadium under Head Coach Jack Leggett after winning the previous 10 meetings.

The Tigers return to action Friday night at 7:15 PM when they host Duke.