Beesball takes 2 of 3

Tech opened up the season winning two of the three games over the weekend. The Jackets were upset in the home opener on Friday against Georgia State 5-2 but rebounded to sweep the series in Statesboro against Georgia Southern.

The first game of the season featured a tense bunch of Jackets as Georgia State handed Tech their first loss in a home opener since 1986.

The victory was also the first for the Panthers over Tech since Tech lost to them on the road in 2000.

The Panthers took the early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning, but the Jackets responded with runs in each of the next two innings to take a 2-1 lead.

Georgia State managed to hold Tech to only one hit for the remainder of the game, and they took advantage of three errors by the Tech defense and the Jackets hitting into three double plays to win the game 5-2.

Jason Neighborgall started the opener and had a solid outing in his first game of the season. He allowed two runs with only one of them being earned, but would not factor in the decision.

After struggling with control for much of last season, he only threw one wild pitch and walked two.

" We ' re disappointed that we lost, " Coach Danny Hall said. " Sometimes you run into teams that you think you should beat, but they played very well. We didn ' t play as well as we needed to, " Hall said.

" I was very pleased with the way we rebounded from that loss. I thought we rebounded very well, and that was an encouraging sign. Maybe our guys played a little tight. More than anything we made too many errors, and we hit into three double plays, and when you do that you ' re going to struggle to win, " he said

The Jackets rebounded from the loss on Friday to sweep the games at Georgia Southern in the Eagles ' new ballpark over the weekend.

The Jackets managed to record only four hits against Georgia State but blasted the Eagles for 29 hits in the two games and scored 23 runs in an offensive explosion.

The Jackets overcame the errors they committed and capitalized on the three that the Eagles made in the victory.

In the opener the Jackets fell behind early, but managed to rally back to win 10-6. The arm of freshman Brad Rulon, who pitched 3.2 innings of relief work, led the Jackets to their first win of the young season.

" I thought we played very well, " Hall said. " They are a good team, and it was on the road, and they were opening up a new stadium. We got behind both days, but yet came back and won both games. I was pleased we played a lot of guys and were able to pitch a lot of guys. We ' ll get better because of that experience. I think, all told, I was pleased with the way we played. That was certainly not where need to be, but to go on the road after suffering a loss was big. "

In the second game of the series, Sophomore Blake Wood became the first starter of the year to register a decision for the Jackets.

Wood pitched five innings and gave up three runs on seven hits in the victory.

The saying goes that the third time ' s the charm, and for the third consecutive game the Jackets fell behind early but once again crawled their way out of a hole to see the game tied at three after four innings.

The Jackets scored three runs in the fifth inning to make the score 6-3, and they never relinquished the lead. The Jackets were aided by two Georgia Southern errors in the inning to help fuel the rally.

The Eagles committed four errors overall, while the Jackets improved on their error total for the third consecutive game, committing only a single miscue.

The Jackets had six errors over the course of the weekend, which is a number that certainly will need to see improved before ACC action begins in early March.

" I want to see our team improve, " Hall said. " I want to see us cut down our errors. We got the news that Tyler Greene has been released to play, and that will make our club a lot better defensively. We need to improve our defense. We made way too many errors during our first three games. We ' re just looking for improvement as each game is played. "

The Jackets will be at home this weekend against Iona at Russ Chandler Stadium.

The Friday start time will be at 4 p.m. and the Saturday and Sunday start times will be 12:30 p.m. Admission is free for students with a BuzzCard.