OXFORD, Miss. — Alex Hernandez hit two three-run homers, and Tate McKee shined on the mound as Georgia Tech opened the Oxford Regional with a 9-2 win over Western Kentucky on Friday at Swayze Field.
The Yellow Jackets (41-17) next will face Murray State, who beat Ole Miss 9-6 on Friday, at 6 p.m. Saturday.
“I think you always look for opportunity, and that was the thing I kept talking about, is we got an opportunity to keep playing and we need to do our best to just prepare to play well,” Tech coach Danny Hall said of his team’s mindset coming into the game. “And felt like today we were ready and just did a great job of playing the game and playing the way we have all year.”
McKee (8-3) worked around seven hits over seven innings and didn’t surrender his only run until the seventh. He fanned six and walked two before exiting after 113 pitches (67 strikes).
A sophomore graduate of Mount Paran Christian, McKee matched his season high for innings pitched and threw a season high in pitches.
“Going into the game, I guess it was the first time I’ve faced more than like five righties in the game. They had like seven righties, so that was definitely and advantage to me, I would say,” McKee said. “They struggled with sinkers this year, so that was definitely another advantage for me. Throwing sinkers and getting them to chase; they swing a lot.”
Hernandez’s first blast was all the support McKee needed. The ACC’s freshman of the year added another for good measure in the eighth off the batter’s eye in center field and finished his day going 4-for-5 with six RBIs in his NCAA Tournament debut.
Hernandez needs two RBIs to break Matt Wieters’ record for RBIs in a single Tech season by a freshman. Wieters drove in 68 in 2005. Hernandez became the first Jacket to hit two home runs in an NCAA regional game since Drew Compton did so against Indiana State in 2021 and first to drive in six runs since JJ Thomas against Austin Peay in 1996.
“To be honest, it kind of felt like another game. Obviously, it means a little more, but I just wanted to go out there and not take too much pressure in on it and overthink it and do too much,” Hernandez said. “Just treat it like every other game and let the crowd kind of do their own thing, try not to listen to them, stick with the team, stay with the guys and play like every other game.”
Tech tacked on single runs in the second, sixth and seventh innings before Hernandez’s second home run. Carson Ballard allowed a run on a sacrifice fly in the eighth before throwing a scoreless ninth.
Western Kentucky (46-13) will face elimination at 2 p.m. Saturday against Ole Miss.
In Tech’s first half-inning Friday, Kent Schmidt took a fastball on the shoulder with one out and then scampered to second on a wild pitch before Kyle Lodise walked. That brought up Hernandez, who planted a 3-2 pitch barely over the wall in center field to gave the Jackets a 3-0 lead.
“I anticipated it going (out),” Hernandez said. “I kind of looked to the dugout a little bit and then just started to run. Then I saw the guy in right center field track it down a little bit, and so kind of got a little nervous. But I had a feeling it was going when I hit it.”
Carson Kerce reached second to begin the second inning when his pop fly to right was lost in the sun by Western Kentucky right fielder Ethan Lizama. Kerce went to third on Will Baker’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Drew Rogers’ sacrifice fly to left, to make the score 4-0.
Tech didn’t score again until the sixth, when Vahn Lackey coaxed a leadoff walk, Caleb Daniel rolled a single up the middle and Kerce, off reliever Taylor Penn, pushed a squeeze bunt up the first-base line to score Lackey and make the score 5-0. Kerce reached first safely on the play and went to second on Baker’s sac bunt that also moved Daniel to third.
Western’s offense was relatively quiet until Camden Ross one-handed a single into right field with one out in the seventh. Austin Haller followed that with a single to center and Reid Howard rolled an RBI single to left to get the Hilltoppers on the board.
But McKee got a liner to left and a ground ball to short to escape the threat.
“Kudos to their pitcher, but we were there and had opportunities,” Western Kentucky coach Marc Rardin said. “Two-out hits win championships. There’s a million baseball cliches that really go to the game and to life. Being able to do things when you back’s against the wall, even in an inning with two outs, we weren’t doing it and they were.”
Tech got that run back in the bottom of the inning when Lodise scored from second on Lackey’s sacrifice bunt that was thrown away by relief pitcher Treyson Peters. Hernandez provided the exclamation point an inning later.
Western Kentucky starter Drew Whalen (9-3) was charged with five earned runs on seven hits over five innings.
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