Before the season began, Georgia Tech shortstop Luke Waddell sought to be a trail guide for his young teammates, warning about the challenges that awaited them over the next four months.
“You know, how there’s going to be ups and downs in a season, whoever you are, how good you are, how bad you are,” Waddell said this week. “You’ve just kind of got to deal with them.”
Waddell, one of the premier shortstops in the country, was perhaps more prescient than he might have hoped. After playing well through March, the Yellow Jackets have tailed off since. While still in the thick of the chase for an NCAA Tournament berth, Tech needs to quickly adjust course. The Jackets’ next opportunity to regain their stride arrives this weekend with a three-game home series against a resurgent Clemson team.
“You never want to be hot early or hot in the middle,” Waddell said. “We kind of want to be hot towards the end, so you know we’re working towards that.”
Tech’s standing certainly could be worse. The Jackets are 21-18 overall and 15-12 in the ACC. They were projected into the field of 64 in a bracket composed this week by D1Baseball. They own series wins over three teams (N.C. State, Louisville and Virginia Tech) also projected into the tournament.
“I think we’re in a good spot,” coach Danny Hall said. “But we’ve got to finish good down the stretch here. And if we do that, we’ll be right where we need to be.”
However, the Jackets have been on a decidedly downward trajectory. On the evening of April 1, all seemed well. Tech had just defeated Virginia 6-5 at Russ Chandler Stadium in a series opener on the strength of another dominant performance by No. 1 starter Brant Hurter. The Jackets were hitting .304 with an on-base percentage of .393 while creating 7.4 runs per game. Tech was 14-7 (11-5 in the ACC) and ranked in the top 10 nationally.
Since that point, fortune has cast its gaze somewhere other than wherever Hall’s band has happened to be located at the time.
In the 18 games since April 1, Tech is hitting .256 with an on-base percentage of .362 while creating 5.7 runs per game and is 7-11 overall and 4-7 in the ACC.
After subduing the Cavaliers, Hurter had a 2.82 ERA in his first seven starts, with no home runs allowed in those 38-1/3 innings. But in his past three starts, he has an ERA of 6.62, with six home runs given up in the space of 17-2/3 innings.
No. 2 starter Andy Archer had a 1.82 ERA going into the Virginia game and gave up only one earned run in four innings against the Cavaliers. However, he surrendered five runs total, including a grand slam, in an 8-2 loss. In his three starts since Virginia, his ERA is 10.95. Archer was unavailable Saturday against Kennesaw State, but is expected to be back Saturday against Clemson.
The Jackets have had their moments since playing Virginia, notably a series win on the road at Virginia Tech. They rallied from a 5-0 first-inning deficit to beat Florida State 9-8 for Hall’s 1,300th career win. Two days later, they beat Georgia in Athens to end a five-game losing streak at Foley Field.
Third baseman Justyn-Henry Malloy has been productive throughout the season. Out of the bullpen, Zach Maxwell has a 1.50 ERA in his past seven appearances, with 24 strikeouts against 14 walks and six hits in 12 innings.
“The consistency at all phases just hasn’t been there the whole year,” Hall said. “When we’ve done it consistently, we’ve beaten some really good teams. So we know that if we do it, that we’re capable of beating anybody. It’s just more that than anything.”
Hall laments the shortage of midweek games, a product of the ACC’s scheduling parameters for the season. The conference reduced its regular season to 50 games from the standard 56 and expanded the number of league games from 30 to 36. That dropped the number of non-conference games, many of which are played midweek, from 26 to 14.
That reduction has limited bullpen opportunities and at-bats for a team that is depending heavily at the plate on younger players. Of the nine Jackets players with the most at-bats, seven either played their first season last season (which was shortened because of COVID-19) or are playing it this year. Waddell, who is one of nine team members who will receive their degrees Saturday, has tried to lead the Jackets through.
“I’ve had some personal ups and downs, too,” Waddell said. “So it’s not just a young-guy or old-guy thing. It’s kind of all of us. It’s been difficult at times, but you’ve just got to stick to your preparation and the work you put in in practice and hopefully that leads to it working out in the games.”
Clemson is an example of how quickly things can turn around. The Tigers have had a six-game losing streak, later a five-game win streak and most recently responded to a seven-game losing streak by immediately winning seven in a row, a streak they ride as they arrive in Atlanta.
For Sunday’s series finale, Hall will stick with righty Marquis Grissom Jr. and give him the start. Grissom, a highly touted freshman who made his debut April 13 in his return from a preseason back injury, started the second game of the Kennesaw State series last week, his first weekend start. On a pitch count, he lasted 3-2/3 innings, giving up four earned runs on five hits. Grissom, the son of the former Braves center fielder, has an ERA of 5.91 in 10-2/3 innings.
“I just think he’s one of our best guys, and we’ve got to keep giving him opportunities and trying to get him built up to where, instead of maybe three to five innings, we can start stretching him out a little bit down the stretch,” Hall said.
Besides simply trying to win the series, Tech also is trying to avoid a dreadful distinction – the team’s first losing home record since 1981. Tech is 9-12 at home with seven regular-season home games remaining – three against Clemson this weekend, one against Georgia and three to close the regular season against North Carolina.
Not having more non-conference home games where they would be favored is certainly part of it, but the Jackets are 4-5 at home in non-conference games.
“It just seems kind of like when we’re not at home, we play really well, and when we’re at home we kind of don’t, in all phases,” Waddell said. “So there’s nothing really you can do about that. Like I said, you need to prepare the same way every week, so you’ve just got to be ready to play.”
