ATLANTA -- Georgia State fell 7-3 at Georgia Tech Tuesday at Tech's Russ Chandler Stadium in this season's first meeting between the Atlanta schools. State and Tech will complete their annual home-and-home with a 4 p.m. game Wednesday at the GSU Baseball Complex.
Elian Merejo homered and drove in two runs to lead the Panthers (3-4), who were within 3-1 after six and trailed 5-3 when Tech scored two in the eighth inning.
Tech (4-3) managed 10 hits off six GSU pitchers, but five of them did not leave the infield.
With GSU trailing 2-0, Merejo led off the fourth with a solo blast that richocheted off the building in left field for his second homer of the season, cutting the Panthers' deficit in half. He added an RBI-single in Georgia State's two-run eighth inning, and the Panther DH now has seven hits and seven RBI in his last four games.
Making his first start, freshman right-hander Joseph Brandon (0-1) pitched three solid innings. Tech managed a run in the first on Oscar Serratos' two-out single and manufactured a run in the second as Jackson worked a walk, stole second, moved to third on a balk and scored on a groundout to put the Jackets ahead 2-0.
Senior lefty Will White pitched two scorelesss innings before he was tagged for an unearned run in the sixth that put Tech up 3-1.
The Jackets took a 5-1 lead in the seventh on Colin Hall's two-run single that came on a 15-pitch at-bat against GSU freshman Griffin Bonner. But Georgia State answered with two runs in the eighth. Daino Deas led off with a single and moved to third on ground-rule double by Griffin Cheney, the Panthers' leading hitter who had two hits on the night.
Jake Corso brought home a run with a sacrifice fly, and then Merejo singled to right field to score Cheney and pull GSU within 5-3. Tech added Kyle McCann's two-run single in the bottom of the eighth for the final margin.
Tech reliever Keyton Gibson (1-0) earned the victory with three scoreless innings in relief.
"I think Joseph Brandon did a pretty good job as the starter," head coach Greg Frady said. "His first college start in a hometown, ACC environment, and I think he handled it really well. And others pitched well - Will White, Griffin Bonner, Tyler Koch. On the offensive side, it's nice to see Elian Merejo stay hot, Griffin Cheney continues to hit, and Jake Corso had a good game at the plate.
"We just didn't play good enough, and they won the decidable moments in those closely-played game. 7-3 doesn't really dictate how close the game was, but we've got a shot tomorrow to come back and even the series."
