The Georgia-Georgia Tech season series has already been decided. That hardly robs Tuesday’s 7 p.m. matchup at Turner Field of meaning.
The Yellow Jackets are trying to avoid – and the Bulldogs complete – the first UGA season sweep since 2003. Both teams can use wins for their NCAA tournament resumes.
“I don’t want to get swept in the series,” Tech coach Danny Hall said. “We need to pull everything we have into the game, for sure. Important for a lot of reasons, but the biggest reason is we’ve lost two of them already, and we need to win one.”
Georgia won 3-1 at Tech’s Russ Chandler Stadium April 12 and then 13-5 in Athens on April 26. For a team trying to squeeze into the NCAA tournament field, a sweep of the No. 18 Jackets (RPI) would be helpful.
As of Monday, Georgia’s RPI was 25th and its strength of schedule was No. 1. However, the Bulldogs’ 26-26 record won’t do them favors with the selection committee. Georgia has had series against the teams whose RPI rankings are first (Florida), fourth (Texas A&M), fifth (Ole Miss), seventh (South Carolina), eighth (Mississippi State) and ninth (Vanderbilt) with a 5-13 record against those six teams. Georgia is trying to get into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011.
“I’ve felt that both times that they played against us, they played really well,” Hall said. “That was a big weekend for them to win two at Missouri (this past weekend). It looks like they’re going to be in the SEC tournament, and to me, it looks like they’re playing very well.”
From a bragging-rights perspective, the Bulldogs do have a shot at some history. Georgia’s sweep in 2003 was a mere two-game season series. The Bulldogs haven’t won a season series of three or more games since 1984.
Georgia will start Andrew Gist, who had his strongest result of the season in the win at Tech. Gist (3-2, 5.04 ERA) went eight innings with one run allowed with four hits, six strikeouts and no walks.
Tech will start Burton Dulaney and share the nine innings amongst the staff, a strategy Georgia also expects to follow. The Jackets lost their weekend series at then-No. 14 Virginia, winning on Sunday to end a five-game losing streak in Charlottesville, Va., behind reliever Matthew Gorst’s 6 1/3 innings of scoreless relief in a 5-4 win.
“I guess you never feel good losing a series, but to get the win, which was much needed for a lot of reasons, and the way we got it was outstanding,” Hall said. “Still kind of have everything in front of us. We need to have a good week.”
The Jackets (33-18) were ranked 18th in RPI as of Monday and appear safely into the NCAA tournament.
Dulaney has made 20 appearances this season, all but one in relief. He’s 2-3 with an ERA of 4.72 and a .248 opponent batting average.
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