I grew up in Atlanta listening on my transistor radio late at night to Yankee baseball games on the AM station from Rochester, NY. I thought Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were wonderful. During those days my best friend & I used to play a word game where we asked, "What is the perfect Yankee game?" Of course the game was always a Yankee win, but my favorite line was, "The Yanks score eight runs in the first inning, then slowly pull away to a comfortable lead."
The Gators of Florida had a pretty near perfect game against us tonight. Jake Davies finished his career at Ga Tech the way it was almost certain to end. He was hammered by Florida. He gave up seven runs in two innings and never really had a clue. It got worse later for Josh Heddinger, who gave up seven runs in one inning. All the while, our bats were silent.
I am not sure we ever really had a chance against Florida. They are a profoundly better team when we are not playing at full strength and there is no gentle way to say it. Our pitching staff played brilliantly this weekend, until tonight. Tonight the stars were aligned to expose our injury plagued pitching for what it is - a makeshift job that Danny Hall has worked to our best advantage this season, but was never a match for a team like Florida.
I am proud of this team. They really had no business winning the ACC except for guts and inspired play. Evans, Davies, Wren, Farmer, et al. Maybe there are future major league players in this group, but I am impressed by the heart and determination they showed this year. I know Davies is gone (maybe Farmer & Dove, as well), but we were are freshman and sophomore team this year. With reasonable recruiting, we should be strong again next season.
Congratulations to the 2012 Yellow Jacket baseball team. You did good!