With the score knotted at 1-1, Matthew Boggs led off the bottom of the 10th inning and reached base on shortstop Jeff Marciniak's fielding error. After moving to second base on Richard Lewis' sacrifice bunt, Prince laced a single to center field and Boggs slid around catcher Michael Popowski's tag to come home with the winning run.
Kelly (2-0) tossed a career high 10 innings, needing just 112 pitches in the outing. He held the Scarlet Knights to just one unearned run on eight hits, six of which were singles, and no walks while striking out nine batters.
Rutgers' James Wilson (1-1) took the loss in relief after surrendering the winning run in the 10th inning. Starter Bobby Brownlie was impressive, holding the powerful Tech offense to one run on six hits in nine innings of work, but did not figure in the decision.
The Yellow Jackets took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning when Jason Perry took a 1-2 pitch over the right-center field wall to lead off the fame. It was Perry's second homer of the season.
Rutgers immediately answered in the top of the eighth when Brian Ciemniecki laced a two-out triple to left field and then came around to score on a passed ball.
Both teams had chances to score in the late innings but failed to capitalize. The Yellow Jackets had runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Brownlie forced groundouts from Wes Rynders and Brian Jackson to end the inning. The Scarlet Knights' Ryan Lillis led off the top of the 10th with a triple, but Kelly worked out of the jam by forcing a foul out to first base, a line out to second base and a groundout back to the mound.
Georgia Tech and Rutgers will continue the three-game series at Russ Chandler Stadium on Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. each day.
2001 Georgia Tech Baseball
RUTGERS at GEORGIA TECH
Mar 02, 2001 at Atlanta, Ga. (Chandler Stadium)
RUTGERS 1 (6-1) GEORGIA TECH 2 (11-1)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Brian Ciemniecki cf........ 5 1 1 0 Matthew Boggs lf........... 4 1 1 0
Matt Wolski 2b............. 4 0 0 0 Richard Lewis 2b........... 4 0 1 0
Val Majewski 1b............ 4 0 0 0 Bryan Prince dh............ 5 0 1 1
Billy McCarthy rf.......... 3 0 2 0 Jason Basil c.............. 4 0 0 0
Michael Popowski c......... 4 0 2 0 Victor Menocal ss.......... 4 0 1 0
Todd Speedy dh............. 4 0 1 0 Jason Perry 1b............. 4 1 1 1
Ryan Lillis 3b............. 4 0 1 0 Brad Stockton rf........... 3 0 1 0
Leon Shade lf.............. 4 0 1 0 Wes Rynders cf............. 4 0 0 0
Tim Sweeney ss............. 3 0 0 0 Brian Jackson 3b........... 4 0 1 0
Jeff Marciniak ph/ss...... 1 0 0 0 Steve Kelly p.............. 0 0 0 0
Bob Brownlie p............. 0 0 0 0
James Wilson p............ 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 36 1 8 0 Totals..................... 36 2 7 2
Score by Innings R H E
---------------------------------------------
RUTGERS............. 000 000 010 0 - 1 8 3
GEORGIA TECH........ 000 000 100 1 - 2 7 0
---------------------------------------------
One out when winning run scored.
E - Wolski, M.(2); Majewski, J.(2); Marciniak, J(1).
LOB - RUTGERS 6; GEORGIA TECH 9. 3B - Ciemniecki,B (2); Lillis, R.(1).
HR - Perry, J.(1). HBP - McCarthy, B.. SH - Lewis, R.(1).
SB - Perry, J.(2). CS - Speedy, T.(1).
RUTGERS IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO NP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Brownlie .............. 9.0 6 1 1 2 5 0 0 0 0 34 36 10 11 113
James Wilson L,1-1........ 0.1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 1 7
GEORGIA TECH IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO NP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Kelly W,2-0......... 10.0 8 1 0 0 9 0 0 1 0 36 37 10 9 112
HB - Kelly, S.. PB - Basil, J.(1). Inherited runners/scored: None.
Strikeouts - Ciemniecki,B; Popowski, M.; Speedy, T. 2; Lillis, R.; Shade, L.;
Sweeney, T. 3; Lewis, R.; Stockton, B.; Rynders, W. 3. Walks - Boggs, M.; Stockton, B..
Umpires - Home:Steve Manders 1st:Tony Thompson 3rd:Shawn Ferguson
Start: 3:01 p.m. Time: 2:18 Attendance: 573