ATHENS -- Matt Skole went 5-for-5 with two home runs and eight RBIs to lead Georgia Tech to a 15-6 win over Georgia, sending cries of "What's the good word" echoing through Foley Field late Tuesday night.
Georgia coach David Perno tried to neutralize Skole and Tech's other left-handed batters with a series of left-handed pitchers. The strategy didn't work.
Tech's first seven runs came on hits from left-handed batters off left-handed pitchers. After tearing up Georgia's lefties in the first six innings, Skole hit a grand slam in the ninth off a righty after Georgia had cut Tech's lead to 9-6.
"He's been working hard to stay through the ball and hit the ball through the middle of the field," Tech coach Danny Hall said of Skole. "He's a good hitter, it's just a question of time [as to] when he'll get hot."
Skole added a two-RBI single in the sixth, a run-scoring single in the fifth and a homer in the fourth. Skole entered the game on a tear, with eight runs scored and six RBIs in his past four games.
"I felt good tonight, that's for sure," Skole said. "But it's a team effort. I got a lot of pitches to hit tonight."
The Yellow Jackets (18-4), owners of a 13-game win streak, have won four consecutive games in the rivalry and five of the past six. They will go on the road for a three-game series at Miami that starts Friday. The Bulldogs (9-12) have lost four of their past five. They will play host to LSU in a SEC matchup that starts Friday.
Trailing 9-2 lead, the Bulldogs made it interesting with four runs in the eighth. Back-to-back RBI singles by Zach Cone and Chase Davidson were followed by a run-scoring groundout by Kyle Farmer to cut the lead to 9-5. A wild pitch from reliever Luke Bard scored Davidson to cut the lead to 9-6.
But right-handed reliever Tyler Maloof hit a batter, walked a batter, and hit another batter to load the bases for Skole, who hammered a pitch over the fence in right-center to put the game away. It was his fifth home run this season.
Tech broke open the game in the sixth with three consecutive singles. With two out and Mott Hyde on second and Sam Dove on first, lefty Kyle Wren singled off lefty reliever Patrick Boling to score Hyde and give the Jackets a 5-2 lead. Jacob Esch followed with a bounding single to third that left Curt Powell, who played a fine defensive game, with no play and loaded the bases for Skole. His bloop single to right scored two to give the Jackets a 7-2 lead.
"That's something we work on in practice, is hitting lefties," Skole said. "We just tried to put the ball in play, get good swings off. We did a good job of getting to them tonight."
Tech took a 4-2 lead in the fifth with three runs on four hits and a walk. The Jackets tied the game at 2-2 with a Jake Davies homer that sailed over the 370-foot maker painted on the fence in left-center.
Perno pulled lefty starter Chase Hawkins for righty John Herman after the homer, the second allowed by Hawkins. Two outs later, Wren worked a walk and Esch laced a single to right on a perfect hit-and-run to put runners on the corners. Perno elected to pull Herman for Craig Gullickson, hoping the left-hander could retire Skole.
Instead, Skole singled to center to score Esch and give Tech a 3-2 lead. Daniel Palka, another lefty, followed with a double down the right-field line to score Esch and give the Jackets a 4-2 lead.
Of his lefties, Perno said: "They didn't execute. They put themselves in tough situations."
