Freiman Ties Home Run Record In 10-3 Loss To No. 7 Georgia Tech

Thursday, May 14

Durham, N.C.

7:00 PM

Duke University

Georgia Tech

Freiman Breaks Home Run Record In 10-4 Win Over Clemson

Freiman Ties Home Run Record In 10-3 Loss To No. 7 Georgia Tech

5/14/2009 10:30:00 PM | Baseball

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. ? Chris House and Matt Skole combined for seven RBI to back an eight-inning, two-run start from Deck McGuire that led No. 7 Georgia Tech to a 10-3 win over Duke in the series opener Thursday night at Jack Coombs Field.

House and Skole, hitting next to each other in the seven and eight spots in the batting order, combined for four of Georgia Tech's seven extra-base hits and had a hand in each of the Yellow Jackets' 10 runs. House drove in four and scored one, while Skole homered, sent in three and scored three. House also saved two runs on the defensive end by robbing Duke shortstop Jake Lemmerman of a home run and second baseman Gabriel Saade of an RBI single with a diving catch in left field.

Their combined effort provided plenty of support for McGuire (10-0), who held Duke to five hits, two runs and a walk over eight complete innings. McGuire fired 100 pitches, 66 of which were strikes, and struck out seven batters. The only runs he surrendered to Duke (32-22, 13-15 ACC) were on solo home runs to outfielder Jeremy Gould and first baseman Nate Freiman.

Freiman hit two solo homers, one off of McGuire and the other off of reliever Thomas Nichols, to tie Duke's all-time home run record. The blasts were the 41st and 42nd of his four-year career, which put him alongside former Duke standout Ryan Jackson, who had held the record since 1994. It was also the fifth multi-home run game of the season for Freiman, who now leads the ACC with 19 home runs.

Freiman had two of the combined six home runs in the game, with the others coming from the Georgia Tech trio of Skole, Jay Dantzler and Luke Murton. All three Yellow Jacket homers came off of Duke starter Christopher Manno, who struck out 10 over six complete innings, but surrendered six runs on six hits and a walk.

Manno got himself into a jam after giving up a bloop single to leadoff Jeff Rowland and a one-out walk to Murton, but worked out of it by striking out Georgia Tech's four and five hitters to strand both runners. Duke third baseman Ryan McCurdy helped his pitcher out with an outstanding defensive play between Rowland's single and Murton's walk by backhanding a ground ball over his bag and, with no time to set his feet, jumped and threw the ball across the infield to get two-hitter Derek Dietrich at first by a step. Following Murton's walk, Manno got both Tony Plagman and Jason Haniger to swing through two-strike fastballs to end the inning.

Manno opened the inning with his third straight strikeout, but then had a full-count fastball to Skole ripped over the right field wall for a solo home run. Manno quickly got ahead 0-2 in the count against Skole, but then missed with three straight pitches to bring the count full. He then fired a fastball over the plate that Skole pulled to right to give Georgia Tech a 1-0 lead.

Gould matched Skole with a solo shot of his own, however, leading off the second with the long ball to tie the game at 1-1. Gould's long ball ? his seventh of the season ? was the first of two extra-base hits of the season for the Blue Devils, who immediately got a double off the left field wall from Lemmerman. Lemmerman was left stranded, however, when Yellow Jacket the left fielder House robbed Gabriel Saade of a potential two-out RBI single with a diving catch in shallow left field. With Saade behind 0-2 in the count against McGuire, Duke opted to send Lemmerman to third base on the delivery. Saade then lifted the pitch into left field where House sprinted all the way in and dove forward to glove the ball just before it hit the ground.

Murton responded with a towering home run in the top of the third that put Georgia Tech on top once again at 2-1. Murton lifted the third pitch he saw well over the left field wall, but it counted for only one run just the same. Manno quickly brushed off the home run though, and used his last three pitches of the inning to get a groundout from Plagman and a foulout from Haniger to end the inning.

Duke got a leadoff base runner in the bottom of the third when McCurdy reached on an infield single, but could not move him past first base. Georgia Tech ended the inning with a double play that featured second baseman Jason Garofalo gloving a hard-hit ground ball by Williams and flipping it to shortstop Derek Dietrich, who completed the inning-ending turn to first base.

The Yellow Jackets used the long ball again in the fourth to jump out to a 3-1 lead. Dantzler got his this time, ripping a first-pitch solo shot over the left field wall. Manno followed by retiring two straight ? one of which was his fourth strikeout victim of the game ? but then hit Garofalo and surrendered a two-out single to Rowland that left runners at the corners. Manno kept his composure, however, and got Dietrich to weakly ground into a fielder's choice to end the inning.

The ball kept flying out of the park for both teams in the fourth, as Freiman opened the bottom of the fourth with the combined fifth home run of the game. Freiman sent his shot to the left-center field power alley to cut the deficit back to one run at 3-2. The long ball was the 18th of the season for Freiman, giving him 41 in his career which was just one shy of tying Duke's all-time home run record.

Georgia Tech inflated the one-run lead to 6-2 in the top of the fifth, thanks to a two-out, bases loaded triple by House that was the first and only hit of the inning for the Yellow Jackets. Manno struggled with his command in the inning and hit the leadoff batter before walking two to load the bases. He nearly got out of the inning unharmed, but lost a full-count battle against Skole and issued him a two-out walk that loaded the bases. House then connected on a well-hit fly ball that tagged the wall in straight-away center field for his base-clearing triple.

Despite having a pitch count over 100 heading into the sixth inning, however, Manno struck out all three batters he faced, getting the first two swinging and the last one looking. Manno used his breaking ball to work through the top of Georgia Tech's lineup and ended the frame by sneaking one in the back door against Murton.

But while Manno's pitch count was into the 120's after six innings, McGuire's was a meager 77. He threw 50 of those for strikes and retired eight of the nine batters he faced after giving up Freiman's home run in the fourth. He gave up just one walk during that span, but rolled a ground ball in the same inning to double up the Blue Devils.

The Blue Devils opted to bring in right-hander Ryan Knott in the top of the seventh, but the Yellow Jackets hit him just as well and scored three of their four runs in the inning off of him to increase their lead to 10-2. Duke would have to use three pitchers to get through the inning with junior Jonathan Foreman coming in to retire the only batter he faced for the final out. Skole sent in the first two runs of the inning with a double that landed on the warning track in the left field gap, which would be the first of three doubles in the inning for Georgia Tech. House followed with another double that hit the outfield wall in the same spot to drive in House just before Duke brought in Joe Pedevillano to take over for Knott. Pedevillano's luck was not much better, as Garofalo welcomed him to the game with a single that preceded another RBI double from Rowland. Pedevillano then got Dietrich to weakly pop out to second base for the second out before Foreman entered the game and got Murton to ground out to third, stranding two runners in the process.

McGuire, meanwhile, went about his business and retired his sixth consecutive batter in the bottom half of the seventh. He nearly gave up a solo home run to Lemmerman, but had it pulled back from over the fence by House for the second out. Lemmerman mashed the third pitch he saw to left field where it was headed over the wall, but House tracked it to the warning track and timed his jump perfectly to leap and snag the fly ball just over the top of the fence.

Foreman stayed on the mound in the eight and cruised through the middle of Georgia Tech's lineup, sitting down three of the four he faced. He ended the inning with consecutive strikeouts, handing Dantzler his third punchout of the game and Skole his second.

McGuire worked through a scoreless eighth to hold Duke without a run for the fourth straight inning. In his final inning of work, McGuire picked up his sixth strikeout of the game and ended his outing with his 100th pitch of the night. Duke then used freshman Trevor Cesar to pitch through the ninth, which he did without giving up a run.

Trailing 10-2 with just three outs remaining, Freiman gave Duke its last run of the game with a leadoff home run that moved him into a tie for first place on Duke's all-time home run list. Freiman ripped the second pitch he saw down the left field line for his second home run of the game and his 19th of the season. With two regular season games remaining, Freiman needs just one more homer to break the 15-year-old home run record held by Ryan Jackson since 1994.

With Georgia Tech ahead 1-0 after Thursday's game, the series will resume on Friday, May 15, at 2 p.m. at Jack Coombs Field. Duke will send right-hander Andrew Wolcott (6-3, 2.65 ERA) to the mound opposite Georgia Tech righty Brandon Cumpton (3-1, 4.56 ERA).

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