Twenty-six years after their fathers helped deliver Atlanta’s first major sports championship, Marquis Grissom Jr. and Peyton Glavine competed on opposite sides of a game of markedly less importance than Game 6 of the 1995 World Series, but one memorable nonetheless.
On a warm evening at Russ Chandler Stadium, Grissom made his eagerly awaited pitching debut for the Yellow Jackets, showing flashes of brilliance but also submerging Tech in a deficit it could not erase in a 7-3 win for Auburn. The Tigers’ most effective pitcher was none other than Glavine, whose father, Tom, may be most fondly remembered by Braves fans for winning that World Series clincher over Cleveland, with the last out caught in center field by Marquis Grissom.
“I’m not happy that Peyton Glavine carved us up here (Tuesday), but it’s pretty special when you have (sons of) two players of that caliber, one a Hall of Famer, one that seems like he played 20-plus years in Grissom Sr.,” Tech coach Danny Hall said. “That’s pretty special.”
Grissom, part of Tech’s powerhouse freshman class, showed enough in fall practice to merit consideration for a spot in Hall’s weekend pitching rotation before a back injury in the preseason put the brakes on that conversation. He finally made his debut against Auburn, 7½ weeks into the season.
With his family in attendance, Grissom was in control of the top half of the first inning, mixing speeds and retiring the side in 10 pitches, including an inning-ending strikeout. The righthander encountered danger via base on balls in the second, surrendering a two-run home run to Bryson Ware that hit the scoreboard in left-center on the fly, then giving up a four-pitch walk to Kason Howell, who scored with the aid of back-to-back singles for a 3-0 Auburn lead.
Grissom, a graduate of the Counterpane School, got out of the inning with a ground out, ending his debut with three runs allowed on three hits, two walks and three strikeouts. He took the loss.
“First inning was really good,” said Hall, who had Grissom on a pitch count. “It was just great to see him out there.”
Hall acknowledged the difficulty of making a college debut against an SEC opponent and said that Grissom got in trouble against Ware by falling behind in the count (3-1) and then making a bad pitch.
“We’ll keep bringing him along,” Hall said. “He’s just going to do nothing but get better.”
Glavine, a junior who attended Blessed Trinity, came on in the fifth and posted a pair of scoreless innings. With a left-handed delivery not unlike his father’s, Glavine allowed runners in both (a hit batsman and a walk), but escaped with a double play in the fifth and stranded Tres Gonzalez at third with a 5-3 groundout to Justyn-Henry Malloy. Auburn (13-16) ended a five-game losing streak.
“I’m just feeling happy, feeling grateful that we came out here and got a great, solid team game and got the win,” Glavine said in a quote posted on the Auburn website. “It was a good night.”
They celebrated their being featured in a tweet from ESPN pitching analyst and social-media celebrity Rob Friedman, aka the “Pitching Ninja,” (whose son, Jack, pitched for Tech the past two seasons) with practically identical tweets.
As for Tech, an unexpected slide continued. The Jackets have now lost six of seven, including their past two ACC series, to fall to 15-13. Tech had been ranked as high as sixth nationally before its slump, during which the Jackets have hit .247 and averaged 3.6 runs per game.
To that point, Tech was hitting .304 and scoring 7.4 runs per game.
“Probably more frustrated with our offense (Tuesday),” Hall said. “I just felt like we should have swung the bat way better and we just didn’t do it, and that is frustrating. Because I think we’re capable of scoring runs, but right now we’re just not putting enough good at-bats, one through nine, together to get some runs, and that’s frustrating.”
That wasn’t quite enough aggravation for Hall and Tech on Tuesday. The Tiger doing the most damage at the plate was none other than catcher Steven Williams. In Auburn’s last visit to Tech – for the 2019 NCAA regional, in which the Jackets were a top-four national seed – Williams hit a two-out, 0-2, three-run walk-off home run in the regional semifinal that ultimately propelled the Tigers to the College World Series.
On Tuesday night, Williams extended Auburn’s 3-2 lead in the sixth with a two-out, two-run homer to right and then doubled in two more in the top of the eighth (also with two out) for a 7-2 lead.
In their second game with a revamped lineup, the Jackets attempted a rally in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases with one out and their 3-4 hitters coming up. Luke Waddell flied out to bring in one run, and then Malloy lined out hard to left to end the inning.
“I’m not sure that that (lineup) combination, the way we’ve done it, is the answer, but we’re searching for it,” Hall said. “I know that. We’re searching for everything and trying to get the best combination of guys that can play well together. Just (Tuesday), we didn’t do it.”
In the debut season of Tech’s renovated baseball facility, the Jackets are 7-9 within the confines of what is now called Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium, a record Hall deemed “atrocious.” With 12 of their 21 remaining regular-season games at home, there’s plenty of time for course correction, but the last time that Tech finished a season with a losing home record was in 1981.
“That’s frustrating, we play at home, play at a great facility, and just haven’t been able to take advantage of it,” Hall said.
If nothing else Tuesday night, Tech could take some hope from having additional pitching help going forward in the form of Grissom.
“He’ll do nothing but get better, just because he’s got just a positive, positive attitude about everything that he does,” Hall said. “He cares. He wants to do good and, like I said, he’ll continue to get better.”
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