May 22, 2008
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Story Courtesy of Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - The second of Dave DiNatale's two homers lifted top-seeded Miami to a 15-12 victory over Georgia Tech on Thursday night in the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
DiNatale's ninth homer of the year, with two runners on, erased a 12-11 lead Georgia Tech had taken into the top of the ninth. Jemile Weeks added an insurance run with an RBI single later in the inning.
Miami pitcher Carlos Gutierrez (4-2), retired the Yellow Jackets in order in the bottom of the ninth, after giving up a leadoff single to Tony Plagman. Brad Rulon (3-1), who gave up DiNatale's home run, got the loss.
The Hurricanes' Yonder Alonso also hit two homers to regain the conference lead over Buster Posey of Florida State. Each of Alonso's tape-measure shots came with a runner on, in the third and fifth innings. He now has 21 for the season, after Posey tied him - hitting two homers Wednesday night against Wake Forest.
DiNatale also hit a two-run homer in the sixth, followed by a solo shot by Yasmani Grandal, his second in two days and his fifth of the year. Blake Tekotte (4-for-5) led off the game with his 10th home run of the year.
Georgia Tech got home runs by Jeff Rowland (his fourth of the year) and Luke Murton (his 12th) in the sixth inning. The Yellow Jackets scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth, two on a wild pitch and a subsequent error, to take their final lead of the night.
There were four lead changes as the two teams combined for 32 hits and used nine pitchers. The two teams set an ACC tournament record for the most combined home runs with eight.
The Hurricanes will play North Carolina State at 1 p.m. Saturday in an A division round-robin game, while Tech meets Clemson at 10 a.m.
