Georgia Tech’s baseball team will be a few days removed from its biggest series win of the year, a takedown of then-No. 1 Florida State by a Yellow Jackets team that started four freshmen in two of the games.
Georgia, meanwhile, will face the Jackets Tuesday night at Tech’s Russ Chandler Stadium (7:30 p.m., CSS) having just won its third consecutive SEC series.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted to, but I do feel we’re playing consistently right now,” Tech coach Danny Hall said. “Whether that’s good enough to keep rolling and go where we want to go, that’s yet to be determined. But we’re playing consistently in all phases.”
Not many would have expected this scenario when the teams met for the first of the three-game season series on March 4 in Athens. Georgia was 5-6 and had lost to Georgia Southern, Kennesaw State and Georgia State. Tech was 7-4 with losses to Georgia Southern and Kennesaw State.
The projections that Georgia would struggle under first-year coach Scott Stricklin and that a young Jackets team would likewise face an uphill climb appeared about right.
But the Bulldogs and Jackets have outplayed expectations. Georgia was picked to finish sixth in the SEC East and stands in third place in a tight race, just a game and a half out of first place but also the same distance out of a tie for last place.
“In the SEC, our pitching has been really good and that’s been encouraging,” Stricklin said.
Tech, which began the season unranked for the first time in coach Danny Hall’s 21 seasons at the school, cracked the Top 25 for the second time this season Monday in one poll after giving the Seminoles their first series loss of the season. That included a 12-4 walloping on Saturday.
“Our pitching the whole entire weekend was lights out,” said Tech freshman shortstop Connor Justus, who on Monday was named the ACC’s player of the week. “When we needed a big play or a big pitch, they were there.”
As Stricklin noted, the Bulldogs’ pitching in its 15 conference games has been stellar. Georgia is last in the SEC in ERA in all games (3.91), but second in the league in conference games (2.64). A year ago, Georgia was 13th in the league in ERA in conference games at 4.61, which helped lead to coach David Perno’s dismissal.
With its 7-4 win over Tennessee on Sunday, Georgia improved to 21-14-1 overall and 7-7-1 in the SEC, which tied the Bulldogs’ 2013 victory total for both overall and conference record.
“(Pitching coach Fred Corral) has done a great job with those guys,” Stricklin said. “Our pitching has been the reason for our success.”
Tech boasts a 3.23 ERA despite getting just 35 1/3 innings out of its expected Nos. 1 and 2 starters, Jonathan King (injured shoulder) and Cole Pitts (out for the season after Tommy John surgery). Tech’s ERA was 4.35 a year ago. Ben Parr, who is 3-1 with a 1.66 ERA since becoming a midweek starter in mid-March, will start for the Jackets.
Georgia will be attempting its fourth consecutive win over the Jackets, a streak it last achieved 2001-02. They have been painful results for Tech: a 17-0 blowout at Turner Field, a 14-13 defeat in 11 innings at Russ Chandler last year and 1-0 walk-off win for Georgia in March in Athens.
After the first game in March, consider Justus’ eyes opened.
“I didn’t know it was that prolific, just that hate for each other,” he said.
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