By Compiled from Times wires
Published May 26, 2003
SALEM, Va. - Georgia Tech turned one of the longest days in its baseball history into perhaps the best Sunday, winning three consecutive games for the ACC tournament championship.
Eric Patterson, one of seven Yellow Jackets to play all 28 innings, won it with a single in the 10th inning that scored Jake Hall and gave Georgia Tech a 6-5 victory against North Carolina State and its first title since 2000.
The Yellow Jackets are believed to be the first ACC team to win three games in one day, including the final, and they did it after blowing a two-run lead in the ninth.
Dustin Knight singled leading off the ninth for the Wolfpack. Chad Orvella doubled, and Adam Hargrave hit a sacrifice fly. With Orvella tagging from second, second baseman Patterson tried to throw him out. But his throw skipped past Davis Myers, allowing Orvella to score the tying run.
But the Yellow Jackets won it during the next inning.
With one out, pinch-hitter Jake Hall and Tyler Green singled and moved up on Brandon Boggs' grounder to first. Hall scored when Patterson laced a 2-and-2 pitch up the middle.
The Yellow Jackets beat fifth-seeded North Carolina 10-6 and top-seeded Florida State 10-7 to reach the final.
Against FSU, Mike Nickeas lined a two-run double off closer Daniel Hodges, highlighting a six-run ninth. Greene led off the inning with a single. An out later, Patterson singled and Steven Blackwood walked to load the bases.
Hodges got Matt Murton to hit a potential game-ending double play grounder to short, but Stephen Drew bobbled it to allow a run to score. Clifton Remole's grounder to first brought another run home, and Nickeas lined his double for an 8-7 lead.
Against North Carolina, Boggs hit a two-run double to key a six-run sixth.
SEC: Beau Hearod and Zac Welch drove in three runs and Alabama capitalized on a season-high five LSU errors for a 10-3 victory and its second straight tournament title in Hoover, Ala.
CONFERENCE USA: Marc Maddox's sacrifice fly broke an eighth-inning tie and lifted Southern Miss to a 7-5 victory against Tulane in the final in New Orleans.
ATLANTIC SUN: Dennis Robinson pitched a complete game as sixth-seeded Jacksonville beat second-seeded Stetson 7-1 to win the title in DeLand.
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Florida State and Miami are among the 16 region hosts. The double-elimination round of the 64-team tournament begins Friday. The tournament seeds and pairings will be announced today.
Other sites: Georgia Tech, N.C. State, Arizona State, Auburn, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, LSU, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Stanford, Texas and Texas A&M.
All-tournament passes for the FSU region are $40 and $25 and are on sale at www.seminoles.com Starting Tuesday, passes can be bought by calling toll-free 1-888-378-6653. Single-game tickets go on sale Friday.
All-tournament passes for the Miami region are $40 for general admission and $30 for those 17 and younger and 55 and older and can be purchased at hurricanesports.com. Single-day passes for Friday and Sunday are $15 and $10. Saturday day passes are $20 and $15. Starting Tuesday, tickets can be purchased by calling toll-free 1-800-462-2637.
Softball
WORLD SERIES: Veronica Nelson's two-run home run helped California defeat Arizona for the second time in one day and reach the World Series final in Oklahoma City. Needing to defeat the Wildcats twice, the Bears won the opener 2-1 in 12 innings and the nightcap 4-1.
The Bears face UCLA in today's final.
UCLA beat Texas twice, scoring two in the bottom of the seventh to win Game 2 2-1. Earlier, UCLA ended Texas' 20-game win streak with a 3-0 victory.
The Longhorns scored in the first with Chez Sievers' single scoring Lindsay Gardner.
But with two outs, Natasha Watley singled home Monique Mejia to tie it. Then Caitlin Benyi singled home Watley to win it.
In the first game, Keira Goerl allowed two singles and struck out nine for UCLA.
In Game 1, Cal broke a 1-1 tie on Chelsea Spencer's bases-loaded single. Kelly Anderson pitched all 12 innings for the Bears, allowing five hits and striking out nine.
In Game 2, Courtney Scott singled with one out in the fifth. Nelson followed with a homer to make it 3-1.
Tennis
ALL ILLINI ADVANCE: Illinois' Amer Delic reached the singles final by beating Washington's Alex Vlaski 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 6-2 in Athens, Ga. He faces Baylor's Benedikt Dorsch, who beat Miami's Todd Widom 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7), today.
Illinois' doubles team, Rajeev Ram and Brian Wilson, beat top-seeded twins Richard and William Barker of Rice 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 to reach the final. They face San Diego State's Oliver Maiberger and Ryan Redondo, who beat Stanford's Scott Lipsky and David Martin 6-4, 6-4, today.
Illinois already has won the team title, and no team has swept all three titles with different players in the singles and doubles final since 1971, when UCLA's Jimmy Connors won the singles and Haroon Ruhim and Jeff Borowiak won the doubles.
Lacrosse
DIVISION II FINAL: Joe Gabrysiak and Tom Zummo had two goals and two assists to help the New York Institute of Technology beat Limestone (S.C.) 9-4 in Baltimore.
DIVISION III FINAL: Chris Phillips scored 29 seconds into overtime as Salisbury (Md.) beat Middlebury (Vt.) 14-13 in Baltimore.
Miscellaneous
HDTV: College Sports Television will announce a deal today with iN DEMAND to show live events in high-definition television. The games, which will start with a Division I football game of the week, will be aired on iN DEMAND's high-definition channel that is scheduled to launch in September.
