Danny Hall was all excited on the internet earlier this week and now the New York Yankees are happy to see it too. Mark Texiera has been inducted into the Georgia Tech Hall of Fame and will be honored later tonight during the football game against Virginia Tech.

Last night was a major disappointment, partially because we lost, but really because of how bad we looked in the game. Too many errors and boneheaded mistakes. Yet again, Georgia Tech baseball fell arguably prematurely in the postseason.

The reality of the baseball situation has set in, we're done for 2011. The reality for football is just now beginning to set in...

GET READY FOR THE LONGEST 87 DAYS OF YOUR LIFE!

With baseball over, we know must being the obligatory countdown until football season.

Are you ready for the long days of summer?

The first round of the NCAA Tournament begins this Friday all across the country. The Atlanta Regional, hosted by our Jackets, will be played by Georgia Tech, Southern Mississippi, Mississippi State, and Austin Peay respectively. 2011 is the third straight year that Tech has hosted a regional and the 25th in 27 years. Unfortunately, the last time Georgia Tech made it out of the Regional round was back in 2006, also the last time the Jackets reached Omaha and the College World Series.

Who are these teams and how did they get here? Glad you asked.

#1 Seed Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (40-19) Atlantic Coast Conference

Georgia Tech is kind of wobbling into the tournament, not really hurting but not exactly on first. The Jackets had a sluggish start to 2011, kicked it in full gear for a strong middle and may have lost a little steam in the end as the schedule was back-heavy against teams such as North Carolina and Virginia (both national seeded teams). The 2011 season should be viewed as a success however for Danny Hall's squad as a majority of players this year were underclassmen and questions about their stamina and abilities were answered stoutly.

#2 Seed Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles ( 39-17) Conference USA

How They Got Here: Conference USA Champions

What We Need To Know: 2011 is setting up very similar to 2009. Two years ago, Georgia Tech and Southern Miss played in the Regional Championship, only to see USM beat the Jackets and move on to play National Seed Florida Gators. This year the Gators are the overall #5 seed and our regional is paired up with Gainesville yet again. Might history repeat itself or play in our favor?

#3 Seed Mississippi State Bulldogs (34-23) Southeastern Conference

How They Got Here: A pretty good season in a very good conference.

What We Need To Know: Find a MSU fan and tailgate with them. They're always a good bunch. Find a person who calls themselves a Leftfield Lounge Lizard, and you've hit he jackpot. MSU fans have always been quirky with their cowbells and such but they're a fun group. This is Mississippi State's first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2007. That same year the Bulldogs reached the College World Series.

#4 Seed Austin Peay Governors (33-22) Ohio Valley Conference

How They Got Here: Ohio Valley Conference Champions

What We Need To Know: First off, they are located in Tennessee. Other than that, not much. Georgia Tech and Austin Peay have played one time before in the past, back in 1996 in an NCAA Regional in Baton Rouge. The Jackets won the game 14-3.

Will you be going to the Regional this weekend? Buy tickets here!

The ACC Tournament brackets was announced yesterday and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets snagged the overall #3 seed in the round-robin format. The Virginia Cavaliers, who won the Coastal tiebreaker took the #1 seed, while Florida State, the Atlantic Division Champions took the #2 seed. Other teams that made it into the tournament include North Carolina, Miami, Clemson, NC State, and Wake Forest.

Because the ACC Tournament is a roud-robin of two divisions, the schedule has already been set. Georgia Tech plays the following schedule next week in Durham, NC.

Wednesday 11AM vs. Clemson

Thursday 7PM vs. NC State

Friday 3PM vs. Florida State

Sunday 1PM ACC Championship

Conference tournaments for baseball are tough to organize and schedule, and frankly there is really no right answer. Single-elimination tournaments aren't good for baseball and double elimination is too many games over a weekend (I guess). But this round-robin format sets teams up to play wasted games that just don't matter either. However, these games could mean small-somethings for the Jackets as they need to continue on the winning track to solidify a National Top Seed. According to Boyd's World Pseudo RPI Rankings, Georgia Tech sits at #7. Consistent showings this week can give us a top seed and grab homefield advantage in both the Regional and Super Regional rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Go Jackets!

I'm chillin' in the Atlanta airport waiting to fly to Buffalo. Quick thoughts on this past weekend. Georgia Tech was close to sweeping and actually losing the series against the Tarheela. I'll take a series win. The victory solidifies Tech's position in the Coastal division and has pushed UNC to third. Up next is Virginia Tech in Blacksburg next weekend followed by the ACC tournament. Current RPI rankings have the Jackets set at 9th..one short of a potential National.Top 8 seed. Let's Go Jackets!

Ranked as high as ninth in the country, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets travel to Clemson for a three-game series that could determine whether the Tigers are worthy of making the ACC Tournament. Picked as an early favorite to take the conference, Jack Legget's crew has put together a paltry 11-10 record. They hold on to 2nd place in the Atlantic Division only because the Atlantic is so weak after Florida State. Third-place NC State hosts Maryland and a good performance by the Wolfpack can switch the Tigers with 'em.

Pitching Matchups vis RamblinWreck.com

Pitching Matchup (Georgia Tech vs. Clemson)
Friday: RHP Mark Pope (9-1, 1.01, 80.1 IP, 67 SO) vs. RHP Dominic Leone (2-1, 3.66, 32.0 IP, 35 SO)
Saturday: LHP Jed Bradley (4-2, 2.98, 60.1 IP, 78 SO) vs. RHP Jonathan Meyer (4-0, 2.66, 44.0 IP, 46 SO)
Sunday: RHP Buck Farmer (7-1, 3.27, 63.1 IP, 68 SO) vs. TBD

But here's all you really need to know about the Georgia Tech vs. Clemson series. It's a good one, highly competitive and nobody likes Jack Leggett

The Yellow Jackets took the series against the Deacons of Wake Forest yesterday as they won the rubber match in the 12th inning thanks to a Jake Davies sacrifice fly. Final scores for the games were 5-1 (Mark Pope pitches a gem), 4-6, and 6-5.

The Jackets can continue to solidify their position within the ACC as long as they continue to win series. Add in a sweep or two, and we're all set.I'd pull up the current standings if I could but the ACC's website is down...actually so is ramblinwreck.com and other ".cstv" sites. uhoh.

Edit: I can now access the standings. Here they are below. Remember the top two teams from each division and then the next top four teams, regardless of division, are selected for the ACC Tournament.

Georgia Tech will travel to Mercer on Tuesday in Macon. The teams played each other earlier this year and Mercer beat the then #6 team in the country and stopped the 16-game winning streak that Tech had put together.

The Jackets will return to home this weekend for a series against the Boston College Eagles. Let's take the sweep.  Don't forget! The spring game is April 23rd and the baseball game has been pushed up so fans may go to the spring game and then immediately walk over to catch the game at Russ Chandler. Make a Georgia Tech day out of Saturday!

Like any true Georgia Tech sports fan, I was very happy to see Virginia leave town Sunday evening and was relieved to see us avoid the sweep by a narrow double play in the bottom of the 9th inning. Virginia was in no way physically intimidating, rather consistently annoying. Never going away, slapping hits around,and then BAM! home run to go ahead.

Over the season, I have played the cynic and was worried to know when the "freshman wall" was going to hit our team and whatever weaknesses we contain would be exposed. The Cavaliers showed us that the Jackets can hang around for 5-7 innings but then get outlasted.

So, where do we stand now? With North Carolina winning the series against Florida State (2 games to 1), the Jackets took a bit of a  hit. Here's the latest in the ACC Standings per theACC.com

Tech takes the quick hit and falls to third place in the Coastal Division. The ACC Tournament takes the top two teams from each division, and then the next top four teams regardless of division. Nobody expects Tech to fall far enough below to miss the tournament but a top two finish in the Coastal would be an accomplishment worth noting.

Georgia Tech and North Carolina will square off head-to-head in Atlanta during the weekend of May 13-15.

For a point of reference, here is the ACC Atlantic Division standings: