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This week our Jackets went toe to toe with a surging Georgia State team and a UNC team that doesn’t do much losing at home. While this is not going to be the biggest challenge for the Jackets all year, this week is representative of the challenges which lie ahead for our Jacket squad. While the boys did not win every game, they did a good job of showing their talent.
April 12th: Georgia Tech can’t find the hit they need to comeback, Georgia State wins 9-5
Losing by 4 runs looks bad on paper, but this game was much closer than you may realize from the score. The Jackets had plenty of opportunities to get back on top in this game, however the bats could not strike when they were needed the most. Jackets ended the game with 2 of 14 hits while runners were in scoring position. Otherwise hitting looked good with 12 total hits on the day.
Pitching showed some bright spots despite the accumulation of 9 runs throughout the game. Relievers Dawson Brown, Sam Crawford, and Aeden Finateri combined for 5.2 innings without giving up an earned run. Camron Hill did ok in his first ever collegiate start, but was still tagged with the loss. Camron had 3 strike outs, 1 walk, and gave up 3 earned runs over 3 innings.
I try to focus on our players in these articles, but Griffin Cheney on Georgia State did a great job in putting this game out of reach. Griffin had 2 HRs on 3 hits. Tough loss for the Jackets against a surging Georgia State team.
April 15th: GT Wins a HR derby in Chapel Hill, 15-12
Georgia Tech and UNC both hit 4 HRs in what turned out to be a wild ride of a game. RBIs abounded as Kevin Parada had 4, Andrew Jenkins had 3, Drew Compton had 3, and Tim Borden II had 2... Great job by the hitters as usual.
Pitching also had its high points. Despite giving up 6 earned runs, Chance Huff was able to keep things close through the first 4 innings of the game to give our relievers some extra rest. Zach Maxwell shut things down at the end of the game pitching 3 innings and only giving up 2 runs. This was a fun one to watch.
April 16th: Jackets unable to score late, fall to UNC 10-5
This was the game where UNC was able to showcase their pitching. GT had 8 hits on the game to the Tar Heel’s 17 hits. To their credit the Jackets were able to make 5 runs out of those 8 hits, but the difference in pitching was all to clear in this game.
From UNC Brandon Schaeffer went 5.2 innings and gave up 4 runs, but gave his team enough of a lead that Nik Pry was able to control the game into the 9th. On GTs side of things... it just wasn’t as good. We only used 4 pitchers, but only Luke Bartnicki seemed to be in the groove on Saturday ad he ended the last 1.2 innings of the game without giving up a run. Saturday UNC was just the better team.
April 17th: Jackets take the series against the Heels 11-8
Tech had plenty of good and bad in this game. The good, they had 2 grand slams which greatly aided in winning this game. The bad, they had 3 errors in the game which made things complicated for the pitching staff; so those grand slams were greatly needed.
This was another wild ride of a game, and it was good to see the Jackets prove they have the gumption to pull out a win despite some difficulties.
Weekly Wrap-up
It’s hard to be thrilled about a 2-2 record, but this is a good results for Georgia Tech. Picking up the series win against UNC puts us back at 9-9 in the ACC and was against a team in the Tar Heels who had only lost 2 games at home to that point in the season.
Kevin Parada continues to rack up stats by leading the nation in HRs. Parada isn’t the only contributor on offense; Andrew Jenkins, Tres Gonzales, Colin Hall, Drew Compton, Chandler Simpson, and Tim Borden II are all major contributors in why GT is leading the ACC in hits and is second in HRs and RBIs. Really I could just list the whole lineup... but I’m trying to shorten this down a bit, so if any players are reading this who I left out I apologize.
This week we have Mercer tonight which is not going to be an easy win. The bears are 31-5 and like GT have a knack for racking up hits and runs. This could be a dangerous game for the Jackets if pitching isn’t ready after coming off last weekend.
On the weekend the Jackets get Duke at home. Duke has not been playing to the level expected of them this year. Currently the Blue Devils are 16-20, most of these losses have be from series sweeps against teams like Miami and Wake Forest. Duke is showing some life as they swept Notre Dame last week, so GT needs to take the Blue Devils seriously. Losing the series against Duke would hurt the Jackets if they want to continue moving toward a playoff bid, but I belive in Coach Hall and I will be looking forward to some wins this weekend. As always, Go Jackets!