At the start of each week throughout the regular season, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will take a closer look at the Georgia Tech baseball team. Here’s a breakdown going into the week:
Record: 30-19, 14-13 ACC
Streak: Won 1
RPI: 48
Last Week (2-2)
Tuesday: Lost to Auburn 7-2
Friday: Beat Duke 11-8
Saturday: Lost to Duke 14-10
Sunday: Beat Duke 8-6
This week
Tuesday: vs. Mercer, 6 p.m.
Thursday: vs. Florida State, 6 p.m.
Friday: vs. Florida State, 6 p.m.
Saturday: vs. Florida State, 2 p.m.
Week in review
A wild weekend at Russ Chandler Stadium saw the Jackets outscore visiting Duke 29-28 (an average score of 9.6 to 9.3) in taking a three-game series with wins Friday and Sunday.
Tech claimed the rubber match Sunday thanks to a four-run seventh inning that came on the heels of the Blue Devils scoring five in the top half of the inning to take a 6-4 lead. Cam Jones’ two-run single in the rally gave Tech the lead for good and Dawson Brown pitched the final 1-1/3 innings to preserve the win, the 1,200th for coach Danny Hall during his Tech tenure.
The Jackets couldn’t keep pace in Saturday’s shootout, losing 14-10. Tech pitching allowed 14 earned runs on 16 hits and walked 16 hitters. On Friday, John Giesler drove in five runs, including one as part of a two-run eighth, to lead Tech to an 11-8 victory.
Tech began the week with a lackluster performance in a 7-2 loss at home to Auburn.
Week ahead
Tech’s two wins over Duke put the Jackets in good shape to make an NCAA regional when selections are made at the end of the month. But Hall’s team still shouldn’t be leaving anything to chance during the final week of the regular season.
A visit from Mercer (26-25) at 6 p.m. Tuesday marks Tech’s final home game of the season. The Bears have lost three in a row coming in and were beaten 9-5 by the Jackets on March 12 in Macon. Mercer has an RPI of 103, thus making it an opponent Tech can ill afford to slip up against.
The Jackets will then hit the road to Tallahassee, Florida, on Wednesday ahead of a three-game series at Florida State to close out the regular season beginning Thursday. The Seminoles (37-12, 15-11 ACC) surprisingly dropped 2 of 3 at Pittsburgh over the weekend and have a game at Stetson on Tuesday.
Florida State, with an RPI of 8, is tied for second in the ACC’s Atlantic Division and is 1-1/2 games back of first-place Clemson.
Tech is now tied for third with Virginia Tech (but owns the tiebreaker over the Hokies) in the league’s Coastal Division and just one game back of both Virginia and Duke for second. The Jackets also took three-game series from each of those teams.
After this weekend, the Jackets will head to Charlotte for the ACC tournament which begins May 21.
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