Hall soars into record books

The Jackets have started off the season at a torrid pace and have been knocking down milestones almost as fast. Baseball Head Coach Danny Hall has led the Jackets to setting a new ACC record with 25 consecutive regular season wins, but he has also reached several career milestones along the way.

Hall picked up his 700th career win in a 9-1 victory on March 1 over Georgia Southern. He followed up by recording his 500th victory eight games later in a 16-5 win in the series finale against Wake Forest at home on March 13. He then beat the former record holder to become the man on top of the list as the Jackets took two out of the three against the Miami Hurricanes. Hall defeated former all-time win leader Jim Morris in an 11-10 win on March 27 to pick up his 505th win.

After competing at shortstop for four years under Hall at Tech, Victor Menocal has returned to the Jackets as a volunteer assistant coach. Menocal was able to offer a bit of an insight into what it meant for Coach Hall to achieve the milestones as well as having the perspective of a player and coaching alongside Hall.

" The thing that I really respect about him is that when I was a player he really cared a lot about his players, and now that I ' m on the coaching side I really get to see how much he wants his players to excel. Not only at this level, but the next level. He keeps in contact with guys like [Mark] Teixeira, Nomar [Garciaparra] and [Jason] Varitek. Even the guys that don ' t make it to the big leagues, it ' s really important for him to see those guys graduate. He lets us come back and get our scholarship and work here, so that we can get ourselves a new career in the future. "

" He ' s really proud of those [milestones], " Menocal said. " Coach Morris was a great coach when he was coaching here. He had a bunch of great players. I know that Coach is really proud of those milestones because it ' s really hard to win 505 games here when you have the bull ' s-eye on your back and everyone wants to beat you. "

Tyler Greene was a second-round draft pick by his hometown team, the Atlanta Braves, coming out of high school. Greene turned down a sizeable bonus to sign with the club, deciding it would be better to enter the collegiate ranks instead.

" I think the main factor [in my decision] is that he ' s coached the only two major league shortstops that went through college: Barry Larkin and Nomar, " Greene said. " That ' s a big statement in itself and shows that he knows what he ' s talking about. "

" He works really hard and he cares a lot about us, " Greene said. " He does a lot of stuff for us, and it ' s good to see that he has the all-time record here at Tech, and that he ' s finally getting some support for the work that he ' s done here. "

Freshman Matt Wieters has had the distinction of seeing the milestones fall up close and personal this season. Wieters picked up the win against Georgia Southern and followed that up with being on the mound at the end of the 500th win against Wake Forest. Wieters picked up the save against Miami to finish off the trifecta.

" Whatever situation coach hall puts me in I figure that he knows best, " Wieters said. " Coach Hall ' s milestones have been plenty and plentiful this year. It seems that he ' s reaching a milestone every other game. "

The longest-tenured coach on Hall ' s staff is fourth year Associate Head Coach Bobby Moranda.

" It ' s really nice to have a guy that gets after it as a head coach, " Moranda said. " Coach Hall is the hardest-working head coach that I ' ve ever been around in almost 20 years of coaching. I ' ve been on the field with a bunch of good programs. He knows so many things. He has a lot of expertise in a lot of different areas where he ' s able to stick his hands. "

As can be expected from a coach, Hall constantly refocuses the attention off of himself and back onto his players, and not surprisingly, after talking about the milestones all season he ' s ready to get down to the business at hand.

" I ' m ready for [the talk to cease], " said Hall. " I appreciate everything that everybody has said, written or done for me. Now it ' s time to move past that and keep concentrating on what we ' re trying to do. "

The only milestone left for the Jackets this year is the goal every team strives for - a national championship. The Jackets have come close to winning it all under Coach Hall, but have fallen just short on a few occasions. Could this be the year that Tech finally gets over the hump?

" I think that it ' s huge for anybody and what you always strive for, " Hall said. " You always want to climb that mountaintop and have the team climb the mountaintop. The journey there is what you have to take care of, and right now we ' re halfway through that journey. "