Yellow Jackets reverse rivalry on Dogs’ diamond

Athens — It didn’t make up for the rather rude reception Georgia Tech received during the NCAA regional last summer. But for a regular-season game, Tuesday’s 11-6 victory over Georgia at Foley Field felt pretty good for the Yellow Jackets.

Jason Haniger went 4-for-5 with a home run and a double, and freshman Jed Bradley pitched a career-best six innings and tied a career-high with seven strikeouts as 10th-ranked Tech jumped on the No. 1 Bulldogs early and held on before a crowd of 4,077.

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Johnny Crawford/jcrawford@ajc.com

GA Tech’s Cole Leonida (3) taps helmets with Luke Murton (34) after hitting a home run.

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Johnny Crawford/jcrawford@ajc.com

University of Georgia’s catcher Bryce Massanari, 29, looses the ball as he tries to put a tag on Georgia Tech’s Jeff Rowland.

• Photos: Georgia Tech 11, UGA 6

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“It’s huge,” said Haniger, a senior who’s hitting .325 for the season. “Any time we can come in here and win a game or beat them in general, it’s huge for our school and our team and our fans. The great thing is this gives us some extra confidence.”

It was the first meeting between the rival schools since Georgia ousted the Jackets 8-0 and 18-6 in the NCAA Athens Regional in June. The teams were supposed to play March 25 in Atlanta, but that game was rained out and won’t be made up because of conflicting exam schedules. They’ll play once more May 12 at Turner Field.

“We’re worried about this year and trying to get to where we were at the end of last year,” Tech coach Danny Hall said. “But this is a step in the right direction for us to go on the road and beat a ranked opponent.”

For the Jackets (22-8-1), this was the 10th game in the past 12 against a team ranked among the nation’s top 11. They’re now 5-4-1 in those games. They’ll travel to Wake Forest this weekend.

The Bulldogs (29-7) play host to No. 5 Arkansas on Friday.

“It was over early,” Georgia coach David Perno said. “We just didn’t get much from our first two pitchers [Chase Hawkins and Jason Leaver], and it’s disappointing. They weren’t very competitive.”

Tech led wire-to-wire Tuesday, getting two runs in the first and three in both the second and third innings to build an 8-2 lead. But Georgia at least made it interesting in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Trailing 9-3, Levi Hyams opened the frame with towering solo homer to right field. Johnathan Taylor and Colby May followed with hits and a walk to Rich Poythress loaded the bases with no outs for Bryce Massanari.

But the Bulldogs managed only one run on Tech error. Joey Lewis popped out against Patrick Long. Then Tech left-hander Jake Davies struck out Chase Davidson and Zach Cone, both on high heat.

“That was definitely really fun,” said Davies, a freshman from McDonough. “[Catcher] Cole [Leonida] walked out to the mound, and I said, ‘Look, I’m only throwing a fastball here, nothing else.’ So I tried to throw as hard as possible out of the zone to get him to chase it and thankfully he swung at it.”

Georgia threatened again in the eighth when Poythress — a .430 hitter — came up with two on and two out. But the Jackets’ bullpen responded again. Mark Pope, relieving Davies, got Poythress to ground into an inning-ending fielder’s choice to shortstop.

Matt Skole’s two-run homer to start the ninth squashed any thoughts of a comeback for Georgia.