Georgia Tech is in familiar, if uncomfortable, territory.
At the NCAA baseball regional at Ole Miss, the No. 3-seed Yellow Jackets were relegated to the loser’s bracket with an 8-0 loss to No. 2-seed Washington on Saturday at Swayze Field in the opening game for both teams. This is the third time in Tech’s past four NCAA trips that the Jackets have lost their first game. They now have to win four consecutive games to win the four-team double-elimination regional.
“Once we got down, I felt like we didn’t keep our energy up, so that’s something we need to come out and take care of (Sunday),” first baseman Thomas Smith said.
Sunday at noon Eastern time, the Jackets will play an elimination game against Jacksonville State, which lost 12-2 to Ole Miss on Saturday night. Tech coach Danny Hall said Devin Stanton likely would be the starting pitcher. If the Jackets win, they would play the loser of the winner’s bracket game — Washington vs. Ole Miss — at 8 p.m. Sunday in a second elimination game.
On Saturday, playing a day after rain postponed Friday’s games, Tech (36-26) was harnessed by Washington pitcher Tyler Davis, who was relentlessly pinpoint in throwing a four-hit complete-game shutout, the Huskies’ first postseason shutout in school history. Davis allowed only one runner past first base, got to a three-ball count only once and struck out eight while walking none. He threw 103 pitches.
“Their pitcher was pretty much unhittable for us,” Tech coach Danny Hall said.
Davis is one of college baseball’s more remarkable stories this season. In his first two seasons, he was 4-11 with a 4.33 ERA. After his nine-inning suppression of Tech, he is now 11-2 this season with a 1.60 ERA.
“I don’t think he does anything special, but he comes right at you and gives you everything he’s got, and we saw it (Saturday),” Smith said.
Playing their first NCAA tournament game since 2004, the Huskies (40-15-1) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a hit batsman, sacrifice bunt, stolen base and single, all the help Davis would need. In the fourth, they pinged starter Josh Heddinger for four more runs, all with two outs.
“They had really good approaches, and I think with that approach, they kind of played into their counts and when they got their pitch, they hit it and they didn’t miss it,” Heddinger said.
In each of the past six years, including the two when they lost their opening game, the Jackets have claimed the rather hollow title of regional runner-up. Losing the first game begins a treacherous route for Tech’s hunt for its first super-regional appearance since making the College World Series in 2006.
In the past five years, over a total of 80 regionals, only seven No. 3 seeds have won their regional, and only one did it after losing its opener.
“Whoever’s in the morning game with us, we’ve got to play our best baseball,” Hall said.
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