Technical Tidbits 5/9: Baseball gets Sweep on Graduation Weekend

The Yellow Jackets baseball team capped off their second consecutive ACC series win with a 5-2 victory over Pitt last night, sweeping the Panthers. It was Tech’s first series sweep of the season and put the Jackets at 24-21 (9-15). The series got off to a bad start, as the Yellow Jackets found themselves down 5-0 in the fifth inning of Saturday’s series opener. Thankfully, the bats woke up and tied the game in the bottom half of the inning. The game continued to go back and forth but was ultimately won in walk-off fashion when Coleman Poje, who graduated earlier in the day, scored on a Chase Murray sac fly. The Jackets won the series on Sunday with a 4-3 victory led by Keyton Gibson’s 5.0 inning, 4 hit, 5 strikeout performance. Last night, Tech earned the sweep by topping the Panthers 5-2. Starting pitcher Jake Lee was excellent, needing just 84 pitches to go 7.0 innings and only giving up the two runs.

The Jackets have little time to enjoy the big weekend as they will take the field again tonight in the finale of this season’s Clean, Old Fashioned Hate. The Yellow Jackets will look to avoid the season sweep at the hands of their bitter rival. This game will be Tech’s first in the SunTrust Park, the Atlanta Braves’ new stadium. First pitch will be at 7:00 pm ET.

As mentioned above, it was graduation weekend on The Flats and 63 student-athletes were among those who walked across the stage on Friday and Saturday. While some of those who walked will be returning to school to finish their eligibility in grad school, for many it marked the end of their time in the White & Gold. Among those who earned their degree were Corey Heyward, Josh Heath, and Quinton Stephens from men’s basketball, footballers Harrison Butker (who was released early from the Panthers’ rookie mini-camp to attend the ceremony), Shamire Devine, J.J. Green, and Matthew Jordan, All-ACC volleyball player Teegan Van Gunst and her twin sister Annika, and former baseball star Brandon Boggs, who finished his playing career in 2004 but returned to school in 2016 to finish his degree.

Congratulations to all who graduated this weekend!

Moving from Yellow Jacket graduates to prospective future Jackets, basketball coach Josh Pastner has added another target in his search to fill out the 2017-18 roster. Four-star F Sidney Wilson listed Georgia Tech among his six finalists after re-reclassifying to the 2017 recruiting class. Wilson was once a 2017 prospect but reclassified as a 2018 prospect after transferring to Brewster Academy last summer. Last week, Wilson announced his intent to graduate and re-enter the Class of 2017. If Brewster sounds familiar, it’s because Tech has already landed one prospect out of the New Hampshire school in this recruiting cycle, three-star G Curtis Haywood. It remains to be seen how strong Wilson’s interest is in Tech but hopefully Haywood can help his new coach pull in another prospect.

Finally, new Athletic Director Todd Stansbury made his first coaching-related move on the Flats yesterday, deciding not to renew the expiring contract of softball coach Shelly Hoerner. The Yellow Jackets capped off the season by run-ruling Pitt 12-2 in the second game of a double header but it was not enough to save a 19-34 season or Hoerner’s job. Hoerner’s overall record at Tech was just 80-125 and the Jackets never made the postseason during her term at the helm. Stansbury’s first hire will have a big task in front of them in turning around a softball team that has fallen on hard times in recent years.

Have a good Tuesday! THWg!