Box Score (PDF)
ATLANTA, Ga. – Georgia Tech (29-20) scored six runs in its first four turns at the plate en route to a 9-6 victory over the North Florida (20-25) baseball team in the first ever meeting between the two schools.
 
Despite the loss, the Ospreys out-hit the Yellow Jackets, 12-11. It marked the 18^th time this season that the Ospreys racked up more hits than an opponent and the 11^th-straight game in which the Ospreys had 10 or more hits. Junior Drew Weeks turned in his third, four-hit performance of the season and finished the day 4-for-5. He bumps his national-leading average to .460 on the year.
 
Junior Alex Bacon was one of three Ospreys with two hits on the day as he finished 2-for-4 with an RBI. Trent Higginbothem and Garrick Ferguson each had two hits and combined for three RBIs in the contest.
 
After a pair of runs for Georgia Tech in the bottom of the first inning, North Florida sophomore Corbin Olmstead cracked his team-leading, ninth home run of the year to cut the Yellow Jacket lead in half. Olmstead drove a 1-0 pitch over the left field wall and off the football facility just beyond the fence. Yellow Jacket pitchers were careful pitching to him for the remainder of the day, as he drew two walks in a 1-for-2 effort at the plate.
 
The Yellow Jackets added two unearned runs in the bottom of the third and once again the Ospreys responded. Bacon singled home Higginbothem to make the score 4-2. North Florida stranded two runners in scoring position in the frame.
 
Georgia Tech continued to rack up the hits and scored five unanswered runs in the middle innings. In the bottom of the fourth Michael Earnest hit a two-run, home run to make the score 6-2. Three runs came across in the bottom of the sixth, for the Yellow Jackets. Two of the runs once again came off the bat of Earnest. The Georgia Tech catcher finished the day 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs
 
North Florida did not go down quietly, plating three runs in the top of the seventh to pull within four. The Ospreys have scored 41 runs in the seventh inning this season, the most of any other inning. Weeks collected his third hit of the day in the frame, a single to center that scored Ferguson. Higginbothem then followed up with a double in the left center field gap that scored Weeks and Kyle Brooks. Higginbothem now has 46 RBIs on the year, which leads the team and is second in the Atlantic Sun.
 
In the eighth inning, the Ospreys ran into some hard luck after loading the bases with two outs. A Ferguson single scored Olmstead to make the score 9-6. The next batter, Brooks, had his scorching line drive snagged by the new third baseman Elliott Barzilli. His momentum allowed him to touch third base for the double play. Georgia Tech came into the game as the national leader in double plays and had two more today.
 
The rally killer was just enough to get the home team out of a potentially disastrous inning. Dusty Issacs took over for Matt Phillips on the mound in the 8^th for the Yellow Jackets and earned the two-inning save.  
 
The Ospreys will turn their focus to their final home series of the season this weekend when Lipscomb comes to Jacksonville. The series will begin on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. at Harmon Stadium.