May 23, 2014
Dusty Isaacs and Sam Clay combined for a shutout and Mott Hyde had three hits, including a two-run home run in the eighth inning, as Georgia Tech eliminated Clemson from the ACC Championship with a 3-0 win over the Tigers Friday in Greensboro.
The ninth-seeded Yellow Jackets improved to 2-1 in pool play and will earn a berth in Sunday’s ACC championship game if Miami beats Duke on Saturday at 11 a.m. Tech has won six of its last eight games overall and improved to 35-25 overall. Fifth-seeded Clemson fell to 36-23.
Thomas Smith’s RBI single in the fifth inning gave the Jackets a 1-0 lead and Hyde’s 21st career blast gave the Ramblin’ Wreck insurance in the eighth inning.
The one run would be all Isaacs and Clay needed.
“That was an excellent baseball game…very competitive on both sides,” said head coach Danny Hall, who also defeated Clemson, 5-1, during the Jackets’ run to 2012 title in Greensboro. “I can’t say enough about the performance of Dusty and Sam. Those two guys were very dominant for us today. We got a timely hit early from Smitty to give us the lead, and Mott, late, gave us some distance. As we knew, Clemson is going to fight you to the last out and we knew they would probably make a little run at us, and they did, but Sam closed it out. (I’m) very proud of my team. Now we just sit around and wait to see what happens in the morning game.”
Isaacs fanned seven over five dominant innings in which he yielded just one single – that coming with two outs in the fifth – with seven strikeouts. He turned the 1-0 advantage over to Clay and the lefty rolled through the Tigers over the final four innings.
Clay fanned six, walked none and yielded just three hits in earning his eighth save. The sophomore lefty worked around a pair of one-out singles in the ninth and got pinch-hitter Garrett Kennedy looking and Chris Okey swinging for the final two outs.
Isaacs, who recorded saves in Tech’s first two ACC tournament wins over Wake Forest and Miami, earned the win to improve to 7-5.
Tech pounded out nine hits, while limiting Clemson to just four singles. Hyde was three-for-five and his homer was his fourth career in ACC tournament play. He homered twice during the Jackets’ run to the 2012 title in Greensboro. Daniel Spingola was 2-for-4.
The shutout victory was the sixth of the season and Tech’s first in ACC tournament play since 1994 (beating Wake Forest, 4-0).
Clemson starter Clate Schmidt was two outs shy of a complete game, yielding eight hits and two runs with one walk and six strikeouts. He was hung the loss (5-7).
