Catamounts knock off 14th ranked Yellow Jackets

Western Carolina made a major statement in their trip down to ACC country to take on the 14th ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. That statement was a big lead early in the game and holding off a late charge from Georgia Tech to go on to the 10-7 victory over Georgia Tech in front of 991 fans at Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The win moves Western to 5-and-2 on the season, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 6-and-5. Western started the offense early as Jonathan Greene knocked a solo home run over the center field fence to take a 1-0 lead after 1 inning. The Catamounts would add 4 more in the top of the 2nd as Blake Murphy sent a shot down the 3rd base line and legged out his 1st triple of the year. Freshman Nick Liles would reach on an error to score Murphy. John Ingram drove in Liles with an RBI double, and was driven in by a double from Barrett Shaft, who would score on a Donnie Wilson single to gain the 5-0 lead after 2 innings. Murphy would lead off the 3rd inning with another hit to left field. This time it was only a single, and advanced to 2nd on a fielder’s choice by Liles and would take 3rd on a throwing error. Murphy scored on another fielder’s choice, this one from former T.C. Roberson High School standout Kenny Smith, driving in his team-leading 12th RBI. Murphy would lead off the 5th inning with a solo homer for the 8-0 lead. Georgia Tech would get the next 2 batters out before giving up a double to Ingram and a single to Liles, Ingram would score on the single. The Yellow Jackets would get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the 5th courtesy of 3 consecutive singles given up by Catamount starter Tyler Johnson, but that would be all that he would give up. With neither team scoring in the 6th or 7th inning, Wilson would stop the drought with his 2nd RBI single of the game, driving in Ingram from 3rd for the 10-1 lead. Georgia Tech would show that they still got some fight in them by capitalizing on 4 hits, 3 walks and a Western error by pushing across 6 runs in the bottom of 8th but that would be as close as they would get as Catamount closer Greg Holland came in with 1 out in the 8th to stop the bleeding and pitched a scoreless 9th to preserve the upset, 10-7. The Catamounts registered 4 hitters with 3 hits apiece, Murphy fell just a double shy of hitting for the cycle going 3-for-5. Greene’s 3-for-3 performance was good for extending his hitting streak to 20 games. Wilson and Ingram would round out the 3-hit performances by going 3-for-5 and 3-for-4 respectively. Johnson got the win, going 4 2/3 innings, giving up just a single run on 7 hits while striking out 7. Chris Masters came in afterwards, not giving up a hit or a run over 2 1/3 innings.