Georgia Tech Baseball: Tech Misses Tourney, Season Over

Yesterday, the NCAA tournament was selected, and for the first time since 2007 (and only the third time since Danny Hall has been here), Georgia Tech was not among the teams to make it to one of the regional tournaments, in spite of their RPI of 37.

The Yellow Jackets started off the season on a bit of a hot streak and played well in nearly every non-conference game, going 19-6 out of conference. But it was that 13-17 conference record that killed them. A large part of that was three sweeps at the hands of Louisville, Boston College and Miami.

With the exception of three of Tech's 23 losses, all of those losses came when they scored five points or less. Tech had a very good offense this season, with less than stellar pitching which was the main cause for the decline in success for Tech this season.

But then everything fell apart, starting with Tech's final non-conference opponent: uga. In their first game, Tech had handled uga pretty well, beating them 13-6. The good news was that Tech pitched about as well in the final game as they did in the first. The bad news? The offense wasn't even a shell of what they were in that first game. uga's pitcher, Jared Walsh, pitched a marvelous game, going 5.0 innings and limiting Tech to their only hit of the game.

It was miserable. But it was only the beginning.

The following weekend, Tech was set to face one of the best teams in the country, Miami. In that series sweep, Tech was outscored 42-5. I'll spare the details.

But it still wasn't over.

Tech managed to sneak into the ACC tournament as the 10-seed where they were hoping to make another miraculous run at the ACC title like they did last season. It didn't quite work out like that. UVA's pitcher, Josh Sborz, carried a perfect game into the seventh inning before finally giving up a hit. It was a little late for that, though, as the score had already reached 11-0. The game ended mercifully after the seventh inning, as did Tech's season.

Gone from this team will be left-handed pitcher and team captain Devin Stanton, utility player and team captain A.J. Murray, former walk-on infielder Thomas Smith and senior outfielder Daniel Spingola. Thank you to each of you for your contributions, dedication and hard work on the Flats. I'm sorry we couldn't send y'all out on a better note, but we do wish each and every one of you the best in your future!

And with the end of the season here, along with the seniors leaving, it also means that we have new incoming freshmen. I want to take a second and talk just  a little bit about Tech's current list of signees and verbal commitments. These names and information are courtesy of Beesball.com. The players are listed in alphabetical order.

They only guy I'm really concerned about losing here is Tyler Stephensen. If he were to come to Tech, his bat would easily offset the loss of A.J. Murray. I can also virtually guarantee that he wouldn't be catching. That's not a knock on his defensive abilities as a catcher either. It's more to save his body from the wear and tear of being a catcher, combined with the defensive abilities of Arden Pabst behind the plate. He is pretty likely to be drafted in the first round, though, so I find it hard to believe he will forgo that to come Tech.

What are your thoughts on the season? What can Tech do to improve for next season?