Georgia Tech Trounces South Carolina 11-0 in CWS Opener

Omaha native Kyle Bakker leads Yellow Jackets to the first College World Series shutout in seven years.




Kyle Bakker struck out nine and allowed only six hits and one walk in eight innings against South Carolina.

June 14, 2002

By DOUG ALDEN
AP Sports Writer

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Omaha native Kyle Bakker struck out nine in the first College World Series shutout in seven years as Georgia Tech beat South Carolina 11-0 Friday.

Wes Rynders had a bases-loaded double and a solo homer to drive in three runs for the Yellow Jackets (51-14). Georgia Tech finished with 19 hits while improving to 4-1 overall in the College World Series.

Bakker (13-2), a 6-foot-9 sophomore pitching about 20 minutes from his home in western Omaha, held the Gamecocks (53-17) to six hits and one walk and hit a batter. He was finally pulled for Brian Burks at the beginning of the ninth. Coach Danny Hall sent Bakker out to warm up so he could get a standing ovation from the scattered crowd.

Cal State Fullerton's Tim Dixon and Mark Chavez combined for the most recent CWS shutout, an 11-0 win over Tennessee in 1995.

Yaron Peters was 2-for-4 for South Carolina, which had not been shut out since losing to Mississippi State 1-0 in the SEC tournament last season.

South Carolina won 8-3 when the teams met in a tournament earlier in the season, but that was in February and the Yellow Jackets showed quickly how far they had come since then.

Tech led 8-0 after five innings and South Carolina had little chance of a comeback the way Bakker was pitching. Kevin Melillo's double in the seventh was South Carolina's only extra-base hit of the game.

The Yellow Jackets led 3-0 in the third and pulled away with a five-run fifth.

South Carolina starter Gary Bell (10-3) was pulled after allowing a leadoff single to Victor Menocal and walking Jeremy Slayden to start the fifth. Matt Murton doubled off of reliever Aaron Rawl to score Menocal, then after a strikeout and intentional walk, Rynders doubled to the gap in right-center to make it 6-0. Brandon Boggs drove in two more with a single.

Rynders hit a fly to right that the wind carried over the wall to put Tech up 9-0 in the seventh. The Yellow Jackets added two more in the eighth.

Bell allowed nine hits and five earned runs.

South Carolina's only real threat came in the first after one-out singles by Steve Thomas and Peters. But Bakker got out of it by getting Brian Buscher to pop out and striking out Garris Gonce.