Jackets Claim Fourth Series From UGA in Five Years

In front of 21,309 fans and one definitely-unbiased reporter (me), Georgia Tech baseball made good on it's streak of not letting the folks from Athens get the better of them.  Tech (30-23) used three pitchers to Georgia's six to come to a final mark of 2-0; Sam Clay and Matt Grimes took the brunt of that work with 8.1 innings.  Grimes in particular threw a masterpiece, going 7 innings with 4 hits and 3 walks while giving up no runs.  Jonathan Roberts came in "middle relief" in the eighth to take care of two dwag batters in three pitches, and Sam Clay closed things out with 4 near-perfect outs.

For all of Tech's dominance on the mound (or UGA's struggles at the plate, depending on how you look at things), they couldn't get much going at the plate themselves.  The Jackets had five hits, only two of which went for extra bases.  They also didn't have any RBI's on the evening, their two runs came from smart baserunning and a lot of wild pitches/passed balls.  Matt Gonzalez was particularly impressive on the basepath, he scored a run without any offensive assistance by singling then advancing to each subsequent base by either stealing or using a wild pitch.  All in all the UGA pitching staff had 4 wild pitches and basically paved a road around the basepaths for Tech.  Baserunners who scored for GT took 75% of their bases because of some UGA inaction/miscue.  Put another way, Tech's two scoring players took 6 of their 8 bases because they stole a base or advanced on a wild pitch.

Tech did what it needed to do against a struggling UGA team (25-26-1) by taking advantage of their mistakes, but they also played some great defense.  Gonzalez gunned down a runner at home from the middle of left field and prevented the dwagz from taking a 1-0 lead.  The next inning Daniel Spingola made a diving catch to save a double, and Ryan Puerifoy got the final out of that inning after making a startling quick throw from right to second base.  Connor Justus also showed his usual defensive prowess and showed great form at SS all night.

All in all it was a good win, and a much needed one after the sweep this weekend.  With Tech preparing for ACC tournament play to start next week, The Jackets need all the confidence boosts they can get.