Loss to UGA ends baseball season

Tech’s baseball season came to a shocking conclusion this past weekend at the hands of rival Georgia. As expected, both of the games were highly contested nail biters, but Tech was unable to come up with the one big play to put them over the hump in either game. The team lost Friday’s game 7-5, and then they lost again on Saturday 5-3 to end their season with a 44-21 record.

The Jackets opened up the scoring in the first game of the series. In the bottom of the first inning, Eric Patterson led off the inning with a single. Steven Blackwood drove Patterson home with a one-out double, but Georgia starter, Michael Hyle, was able to retire the next two hitters to get out of the inning.

Georgia took the lead in the first inning after Josh Smith singled and Justin Holmes doubled to put both runners in scoring position. Marshall Szabo drove in the first two runs of the inning after getting the third consecutive hit off of Micah Owings. Szabo was caught stealing, and Josh Morris struck out to clear the bases with two outs in the inning. Owings walked Joey Side to put another runner on base. Side stole second base despite Mike Nickeas making a beautiful throw down to second.

Unfortunately for Tech, Tyler Greene was unable to take control of the ball and apply the tag. Owings walked the next Georgia hitter, and Bobby Felmy made him pay with a three run homerun over the right field wall.

“I wish Tyler Greene could have held on to [the throw from Nickeas on] that steal attempt (in Georgia’s five-run third inning) because that would have been the third out of the inning,” said Head Coach Danny Hall

The Jackets responded in their half of the third inning. Mike Trapani led off the inning with a single, and Patterson hit a two-run shot to close the gap to 5-3. Georgia pitchers walked the bases loaded in the fourth inning, but Tech was unable to capitalize with a hit to score any of the runners.

Georgia added their final two runs in the seventh inning after being helped by an error by Brandon Boggs. Nickeas responded in the bottom half of the inning with a leadoff homerun. Tech rallied to add one more in the eighth inning, but it wouldn’t be enough as they dropped the opener 7-5.

Will Startup pitched the final three innings of the game for Georgia. He allowed only one run on two hits to get his ninth save of the season. Tech was 2-10 with runners in scoring position leaving nine runners on base six of which were in scoring position.

“We had a couple of situations we didn’t capitalize on, and if we make a couple of plays here and there, it may be a different ball game,” said Patterson.

The Jackets were set to face their first elimination game of the post season on Saturday, and nerves were apparent in the first inning. Smith led off the game for Georgia with a leadoff single. Justin Holmes ripped a groundball at Trapani, but he was unable to get a hold of it to pick up the first error of the game. Georgia had two runners on with two out when Side hit a groundball to Patterson. Patterson lobbed the ball over Whit Robbins head to allow the first run of the game to score. Andrew Kown kept the Jackets into the game by not allowing an earned run until the seventh inning to keep the team’s hope alive. Sean Ruthven had an equally impressive performance on the mound for Georgia. Ruthven allowed only a single walk until the fifth inning of the game.

In the top half of the fifth inning, Ruthven walked two of the first three Tech batters that came to the plate. Trapani came through for the Jackets with a clutch two-out double to drive in Robbins and Remole. In the bottom of the seventh, the first three Georgia batters all had hits to have runners on second and third base. Szabo popped out, and Josh Morris was intentionally walked to load the bases. Side hit a ground ball to Trapani who tripped on the base while throwing to first and sending the ball over Robbins head to allow another run to score.

Tech responded in the top of the eighth inning to tie up the game. Trapani recorded the team’s second hit of the game with a lead off single. Patterson bunted him over to second. Trapani moved over to third on an infield single. Blackwood drove him in on a fielder’s choice play, but Owings was unable to keep the inning going. In the bottom half of the inning, Brian Burks hit Jason Jacobs with a pitch. Jonathan Wyatt hit a two-run homerun to give the Bulldogs the 5-3 lead. The homerun was Wyatt’s first career homerun. Startup came in and pitched a scoreless ninth to end the Jacket’s season.

“I don’t what it was to be quite honest. We did things today that were uncharacteristic of our team this year. Heading into the weekend, this was the highest fielding percentage a team at Tech had ever had during a season, but we certainly didn’t look like it this weekend,” replied Hall when asked if his team came out nervous.

“I’m very proud of my guys. Even though we are disappointed, I’m very proud of this team. To come from where we were at one point during the season is great, and it says a lot about our team. I think it was a great season, and I learned a lot from a coaching standpoint from our team this year. Things didn’t go our way early, but to our team’s credit, they believed in themselves and I think in turn my staff and I believed in them,” Hall said.