Baseball: Georgia Tech Loses Midweek Contest to georgia

In the two weeks since the Jackets lost in Athens, Tech has gone 4-4 and the dwags 1-6. They are 16-25 overall, having another bad year since they fired their coach, but winning the season over Tech would go a long way to ease the pain.

Tuesday: georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5

Ben Schneiderjans (2-3, 3.86) faced off against left handed sophomore Kevin Smith (1-4, 6.9). Smith went two innings in relief against Tech in the first meeting, giving up only one hit and walking one. Schneiderjans did not pitch in that game.

In the top of the first, after Coach Pastner and the basketball team threw out the ceremonial first pitch and stood with the team for the National Anthem, a really nice double play erased a lead off single. Craport took a bouncer right on the line, and I never thought he’d turn it, but he and Bailey did.

Both teams missed scoring chances in the 3^rd, uga with a long fly out three to deepest center with two on after walks; and Tech when Bailey got too aggressive trying for third on a Craport single after singling himself, and was thrown out. It was still scoreless.

It was no longer scoreless when Schneiderjans came out in the top of the 4^th. He had walked three and given up a single after the first two walks to make it 1-0. He was relieved by Jake Lee with the bases loaded and two outs. Ben had given up only two hits. After Jake gave up a two RBI double and an infield RBI single, it was 4-0 dwags. The Jackets got one back in the bottom of the inning when Johnson walked and chugged around to score on a Poje double down the right field line. But, Poje went no further than third base, so Tech still trailed 4-1.

Zac Kristofak relieved Smith for the Tech 5^th, and was greeted by Kyle McCann’s towering homer into the trees to right to make it 4-2. Bailey Combs came in to pitch for the Jackets in the 6^th, hoping to keep the score manageable. He gave up a leadoff single, but faced the minimum when Joey Bart threw him out trying to steal after two strikeouts. After Kristofak retired the Jackets in their 6^th, Combs got two outs in the 7^th before being relieved by Datoc with a runner on second base. Unfortunately, Jared gave up a two run homer to left center to Michael Curry that made it 6-2 in the middle of the 7^th.

Ryan Peurifoy led off the 7^th with a solo home run to left to make it 6-3, but the Jackets were otherwise unable to touch Kristofak. Micah Carpenter came in to pitch the 8^th and retired the dwags in order. After Tech did nothing with a leadoff single by Bart in the 8^th, Zac Ryan came in to pitch the 9^th, the Jackets trailing by three. Unfortunately, they trailed by four after a couple of tough breaks: a double that Murray nearly caught and a hard grounder that Craport couldn't handle and was ruled an error.

The bottom of the Jacket order came up for their last chance, with Kristofak still on the mound. The Jackets fought hard and loaded the bases on a double by Wilhite, single by Peurifoy, and walk to McCann. Drew Moody came in to pitch and it only took him seven pitches to get the three outs he needed, striking out Bailey and getting Craport and Bart on grounders. Two Jackets scored, but you can’t trade outs for runs when you're down by four in the bottom of the 9^th. The final score was bad guys 7-5. Smith got the win with four innings since it was a pre-declared staff day, Schneiderjans the loss - doomed by the five walks in the third and fourth innings. Tech will have to beat uga at SunTrust to avoid being swept.

Bottom Line

Another example of how walking batters and failing to get clutch hits can kill you. Tech outhit the dwags, but gave up a total of seven two-out runs while failing to get any of their own. They will have to try to regroup against a pretty good University of Illinois Chicago team on the road before resuming the ACC campaign with a steep hill to climb.