Skole's grand slam powers Tech over GSU

"I wasn't thinking about a home run," said Skole, who hadn't hit a grand slam in college before Friday. "I wanted a good pitch I could do something with and hit a hole. Luckily he threw a fastball in and I turned on it."

The ball disappeared between the trees and landed on Fowler Street, missing by a few feet some of the fans who were sitting on the privacy wall between the street and the park.

"Our goal tonight was to not give up the big inning, and we couldn't do that tonight," Frady said.

The Yellow Jackets (37-17-1) will face Southern Miss in the winner's bracket at 7 tonight at Russ Chandler Stadium.

The Jackets got a strong outing from Deck McGuire, whose loss to Miami in the ACC tournament last week snapped a 372-day streak of him being unbeaten in college baseball.

After a rough second inning against the Panthers in which he gave up three runs, McGuire (11-1) regrouped to shut them down for the next five innings.

"Always seems to be one inning, where it doesn't matter what happens," McGuire said. "I hit a little speed bump. Try to come in and collect myself and start a new inning."

Trailing 3-1 after four innings, Tech bounced back to take a 6-3 lead in the fifth with aggressive hitting. Connor Winn and Jeff Rowland led off the inning with back-to-back bunts. A sacrifice by Derek Dietrich put them on second and third. Georgia State chose to intentionally walk the next batter, Luke Murton, and instead play the percentages and let left-handed starter Will Palmer face left-handed cleanup hitter Tony Plagman.

The decision looked bad when Palmer walked in a run, cutting his team's lead to 3-2.

It looked even worse two batters later after Skole hit his home run. Palmer (5-6) went five innings and allowed seven runs, six earned. He struck out six and walked four.

"I threw him a fastball and didn't make my pitch — just one pitch that I missed," Palmer said.

Tech added another run in the sixth and two more in the eighth on Murton's two-RBI single.

"The game came down to basically two situations, where we had a lefty-lefty matchup and Skole hit the home run and the other one was a two-out RBI by Murton," Frady said.

Bradley Logan hit his fifth home run in five games to lead the Panthers. The Panthers (39-22) will play Elon at 3 p.m. today in the loser's bracket of the double-elimination regional. The Phoenix were beaten 17-15 by Southern Miss in the first game Friday.

"The best thing I can say about this team is we've made every day its own special day," Frady said. "Tomorrow we'll come to the park with an opportunity to win our very first NCAA game. That in itself is a wonderful opportunity."

Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall said the Jackets will start Brandon Cumpton (4-2, 4.83 ERA) against Southern Miss, which hit six home runs in its win.

"I don't know if I should start getting nervous now or not," Hall said. "I can't believe how the ball was flying out of the ballpark this afternoon."