CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Drew Burress became Georgia Tech’s career leader in home runs, Alex Hernandez drove in four runs, and the top-seeded Yellow Jackets beat No. 2 seed North Carolina 13-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final Sunday to win the league championship for the 10th time.
The third-ranked Yellow Jackets won the tournament for the first time since 2014. Second-ranked North Carolina was attempting to repeat as the tourney champion and win its 10th ACC crown.
Burress led off the bottom of the third inning with the 58th home run of his Georgia Tech career. The blast to left field set the tone for a five-run inning that included a three-run double by Hernandez.
The Tar Heels got two runs back in the fourth inning on a two-out single by Rom Kellis V, and they added two more in the fifth on a home run by Owen Hull.
Things got wild in the sixth inning, when North Carolina scored an unearned run in the top half and Georgia Tech added three runs on three wild pitches by Matthew Matthijs in the bottom half, building an 11-6 lead.
Hernandez had three hits, drove in four runs and scored, and Burress had three hits, two RBIs and as many runs for the Yellow Jackets (48-9). Vahn Lackey had three hits, scored twice and drove in a run.
Hull had two hits, scored twice and drove in three runs for the Tar Heels (45-11-1).
Georgia Tech used six pitchers, with the win going to Caden Gaudette (6-1), who shut down North Carolina’s fifth-inning rally.
North Carolina’s Folger Boaz (3-3) allowed six runs, all earned, in 2 2/3 innings.
Next up for both teams is the NCAA Division I tournament, where North Carolina will be making its 38th appearance and Georgia Tech its 37th. While the entire 64-team field and the full bracket will be revealed at noon Monday on ESPN2, the NCAA announced the 16 double-elimination regional sites Sunday, and Atlanta and Chapel Hill were both among them, meaning the Jackets and Heels will be top-16 seeds as expected.