For Tech and star Drew Burress, beating Georgia always worth celebrating

Not that anyone needed any further confirmation, but Drew Burress provided it Tuesday night.

You can be a star center fielder a couple months from possibly being selected with one of the first 10 picks of the MLB draft. You can be nearing the end of a collegiate career that overflows with honors and accomplishments.

It doesn’t matter.

If you wear Georgia Tech white and gold, it always feels great to kick the stuffing out of Georgia, and especially so when you hadn’t previously dislodged so much as a strand out of the Bulldogs.

So testified Burress after a historic Jackets-Bulldogs meeting Tuesday night at Truist Park, the first time the archrivals met on a diamond as top-five opponents in a series that dates back to the 19th century.

No. 3 Tech needed but seven innings to disassemble No. 5 UGA by run rule, 14-4. For Burress, a junior, it was his first win over UGA after four losses to the Bulldogs as a freshman and sophomore. With his departure via the MLB June draft all but a certainty, this was likely his final shot.

“If it’s not the biggest rivalry in college sports, I don’t know what is,” Burress said. “Baseball, football, everything we do, you always have Georgia circled and it was really fun one to get one on ’em.”

In this age of hair-trigger transfers and a diminishing valuation of loyalty, you might think that the opportunity to knock an archrival down a peg might not hold the same meaning.

Not on this night, in either dugout or cheering section. An announced crowd of 20,000 for the annual fundraiser for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta – a gathering that included Kirby Smart, Brent Key, Chipper Jones and Brian Snitker – barked and lustily responded to queries for “What’s the good word?”

Certainly not so with two-time All-American Burress, whose professional future holds the potential to far surpass what he has accomplished in a Tech uniform.

His spirit and energy were obvious throughout, and not only in going 4-for-4 with three RBI, two runs and a stolen base. It was evident in the way he stationed himself at the top of the dugout steps when the Jackets were batting, the way he hustled in from the outfield after each inning in the field and even in the way he left the on-deck circle to helpfully fetch a dead ball that had dribbled past Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson.

After singling in the bottom of the fourth, he edged out far enough from first base to draw two pickoff tries from pitcher Grant Edwards and then successfully stole second (with the aid of a drop by shortstop Kolby Branch).

Burress attempted his daring baserunning with the score already 7-2 in Tech’s favor. This was not someone on cruise control in advance of the draft.

“That’s why he’s got the ‘C’ on his chest,” said Tech coach James Ramsey, referring to Burress’ captaincy. “I think he’s everything that a coach could ever embody. His competitive spirit, man – he’s in the trenches with everybody.”

In games during fall practice, Ramsey said he had to continually remind Burress to stay within the confines of the dugout. It was training for the season, as Ramsey didn’t want to risk Burress drawing the ire of umpires “because he’s already halfway on the field all the time for his teammates.”

Could a coach pick a better worry for his star player?

With the win, Tech averted a sweep at the hands of its rivals from Athens for all of the sports in which the Jackets and Bulldogs compete head-to-head. This academic year, UGA had already bested Tech in football, volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball, softball and men’s and women’s tennis. Barring potential postseason meetings, this may have been the Jackets’ final chance to avoid a brooming.

And the revenge arrived, as noted, in possibly Burress’ final game vs. the Bulldogs. And with Georgia ranked in the top five. And handed the Bulldogs a decisive loss in a neutral site with plenty of opportunity for real-time gloating.

“At that point, it’s just a statement,” Burress said of the run-rule win. “We wanted to beat ’em, but it’s a little bit better when you send them out of here in the seventh inning.”

Watching Burress stationed in center field in the Braves’ ballpark, the thought occurred that it would be a surprise to no one if he were to return to the same patch of grass in a few years, this time in a major-league uniform.

In any number of ways, it would be bigger and better.

But most definitely not in all ways.