Jackets get back on track vs. Georgia State with 7-3 win

Freshman Cort Roedig got a second chance to make a good first impression after a short forgettable outing against Richmond the first weekend. He faced sophomore righty Joseph Brandon, and both came in with 6.75 ERA’s. Both teams came in 3-3, the Panthers having won the series at Charleston Southern, and beating UIC, like Tech. Roedig pitched well, but didn’t go the five innings for a win.

After Roedig pitched a one hit 1st, the Jackets struck in the bottom of the inning when Michael Guldberg reached on a bunt single and was driven in by Oscar Serratos with an RBI single. They also manufactured a run in their 2nd when Jackson Webb walked, stole 2nd, moved to 3rd on a balk, and came in on Nick Wilhite’s grounder to SS.

The Panthers got on the scoreboard in their 4th when Elian Merejo blasted one off the Brock Football Facility to make it 2-1. They then brought in senior lefty Will Webb to pitch to Tech in the 4th and the Jackets went to Keyton Gibson for the top of the 5th. In the top of the 6th, Serratos was charged with an error, but replay showed he got the runner at 1st despite bobbling a hotshot, so the error turned into a putout. Oscar led off the bottom and satisfied the baseball gods by reaching on an error by his Panther counterpart.

When Austin Wilhite walked with one out, GSU went to senior righty Liam Henry to face Webb. He nearly picked off Serratos at 2nd, then gave up a bloop single to Webb that loaded the bases. He balked in Serratos, then coaxed a grounder from Nick Wilhite to 1st that was thrown home to get brother Austin. The Panthers next brought in junior lefty Tyler Koch to face Murray with two outs. After a long at-bat, he got Murray to pop out to second, ending along half inning that got Tech only one run.

In the 7th, the Jackets loaded the bases on infield hits by Guldberg and McCann and English being hit by a pitch. After Serratos popped out, Colin Hall had an incredible 15 pitch at-bat that ended with a 2 RBI single to right and GSU went to freshman righty Grant Gaspard to finish the inning.

Leading 5-1, Tech brought English to the mound for the 8th after he’d had barely a minute to warm up. Radcliffe came in to play 1st. The Panthers hit Tristin pretty hard, and got the two runs back on two singles and a double to make it 5-3 mid-eighth.

But Tech loaded the bases on two walks and a single in the bottom of the 8th, and GSU brought in senior RHP Rhett Harper to face McCann. Kyle singled in two runs, and the game went to the top of the 9th with the Jackets leading 7-3. Tristin easily retired three pinch hitters to close out the Jacket win. Gibson got the win in relief, and Brandon the loss. Guldberg with 3 and McCann with 2 led in hits, and the team went 10 for 36, a big improvement to raise their season average a bit. They played error free ball and had strong pitching, especially from Keyton Gibson.

The teams play Wednesday in Panthersville. I asked a GSU Dad about the new downtown stadium. He said only it’s promised that his freshman son would probably get to play in it.