Baseball: Jackets Drop See-Saw Affair to Wake Forest, 12-8

After dropping their ACC season opener, the Yellow Jackets (7-7, 0-2 ACC) looked to even their record with Wake Forest (11-4, 2-0 ACC) sending Jr. Cole Pitts to the mound against Wake Jr. John McLeod. It would not be as the Jackets pitching struggled again today.

Tech took the lead in the sixth as Wake reliever Parker Dunshee came on for McLeod. Fr. Connor Justus would start the inning with a single to center. After advancing to second on a sacrifice by Sen. Mott Hyde, Justus scored after a pair of errors by the Wake infield throwing it around the diamond, cutting the lead to 5-4. Fr. Elliot Barzilli would put the Jackets ahead, 6-5 with a double to left field after a So. Matt Gonzalez single and Fr. Brandon Gold walk.

However, the Demon Deacons would take the lead back, 7-6, on a couple of sacrifice flies by Wake LF Jonathan Pryor and CF Evan Stephens and not look back, with the Deacons blowing open the game against Tech Sr. Alex Cruz, adding 5 more in the 8th via single parade. Cruz (0-1) would get the loss as Wake reliever Aaron Fossas (4-1) gets the win.

Big things started for Wake Forest in the third as Georgia Tech pitching was again sub-par. Pitts and reliever Jr. Josh Heddinger gave up 4 runs on 4 hits and walking 2. Deacon Sen. Matt Conway had another big day at the plate, going 3/6 with 3 2B and 3 RBIs.

The good: The Jackets finally started swinging the bat, going .324 (12-37). Gonzalez brought his average up to .358 and getting into double digit RBIs with 10. Justus also had a big day going 3/4 with 3 singles and 2 runs.  Sr. reliever Dusty Isaacs continues to be phenomenal , with Isaacs giving up his first run of the year and sporting a microscopic 0.68 ERA.

A big surprise for me has been Jr. Daniel Spingola. Not only did he have a 2/4 day with a 1B, 3B, RBI, HBP, and SB, he has had great season so far, batting .333 and .429 with RISP.

The Bad: The most glaring problems for Georgia Tech over the past couple games has been leaving men on base, stranding 6 yesterday and another 13 batters today, and batting with RISP, going .235 (4-17) today. With these Jackets being so young, this should go down as the season goes on. But I am afraid this will be a reoccurring theme as Tech goes throw the growing pains.

A growing concern for me has been the lack of presence Hyde, who has struggled with a season slash line of .229/.288/.396. If Tech is gonna be any good, he along with Heddinger are going to have to start performing better as we play A LOT better competition.

Do you think this is the case? Are we just using youth as an excuse?