Baseball climbs to No. 1 in the nation
By Jamie Howell/ Student Publications
Jeff Kindel (right) is congratulated by Mike Trapani (left) . Kindel hit his second homerun of the season and had 4 RBIs last weekend to lead the Jackets to a 10-0 start and a No. 1 overall national ranking.
The baseball team traveled to Myrtle Beach, S.C. for the Baseball Bash at the Beach tournament and remained undefeated. After beating No. 6 Tennessee 8-5 on Friday and Virginia Commonwealth 8-2 on Saturday, the Jackets ascended to No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll for the first time this year. It is the 11th time in school history that Tech has been ranked No. 1.
“It’s early in the year, and it just means that we played well in the month of February. There is certainly a long time to go in the season. The only time that poll really counts is the last one. We know that we have a lot of work to do, and a lot of great teams to play before we worry about where we are sitting the polls,” Head Coach Danny Hall said.
On Friday afternoon, the Jackets faced Tennessee in an early-season rematch of last year’s super regionals. Last year the Volunteers took the first two games at Russ Chandler Stadium to advance to the College World Series. The Vols started their ace left-handed pitcher James Adkins. Known for his off speed pitches and ability to make breaking balls fall off of the table, he was very effective in the super regionals last year, pitching 7 and 2/3 innings, giving up only three earned runs, while striking out 11.
But on Friday, it was a completely different story. The Jackets were the away team for this contest, and led the game off by scoring five runs in the first inning. Sophomore center fielder Danny Payne (.341 avg, .415 slugging, .426 on-base percentage) led off the game by getting on base with a single.
After that, there was a key throwing error by Tennessee’s shortstop, Tony Delmonico, which allowed the Jackets to load the bases, as well as score Danny Payne, with one out instead of having two outs with runners on second and third, or even possibly a double play to get out of the inning giving up no runs.
Tech maintained this 5-0 lead until the third inning when Julio Borbon, the Tennessee center fielder, doubled to drive in a run and then scored on a sacrifice fly to bring the Vols within three. The Jackets responded in the top of the fourth with the runs they would need to hold on for the win. The Jackets picked up three runs on one swing of Jeff Kindel’s bat. This made the game 8-2.
“[Adkins] is a pretty good pitcher. We just took our hits against him early and made him throw a lot of pitches. We were able to keep him from settling in [to the game]. I remember that he threw a lot of breaking balls to a lot of our hitters when we faced him before, so we were all looking for that [this time],” Kindel said.
Tennessee would go on to score three more runs in the next three innings to make the score closer, but Brad Rulon (1-0, 2.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP) pitched three solid innings of relief, giving up only two runs on three hits, and striking out two. Senior reliever Tim Gustafson (0.84 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, five strikeouts) slammed the door shut on the ninth inning by allowing only one hit, giving him his third save of the season. Blake Wood threw five innings, giving up three earned runs, while walking two batters, and striking out four.
“I like closing. It’s fun being in the game at the end and putting it away. I also think that Matt Wieters will close a bunch of games this year. I guess that it will be Matt and I by committee this year, just depending on the situation, and who feels good, and who’s catching. I don’t mind closing or setting up games for him to close,” Gustafson said.
On Saturday, the Jackets defeated Virginia Commonwealth 8-2 in six innings as the game was stopped due to rain. However, the game was much closer than the score indicates. The Jackets struck first in the bottom of the second inning on a Mike Trapani (.222 avg, .222 slugging, .333 obp) two-out single that scored two runs.
The game would stay this way until the top of the fifth when Virginia Commonwealth tied the game at two. The Jackets responded in the bottom half of the inning with four runs of their own.
With two outs in the inning and the bases loaded, Wes Hodges (.417 avg, .500 slugging, .533 obp) hit a single on a two-strike count to drive in the go-ahead run. Whit Robbins (.375, .575 slugging, .422 obp) came up to the plate next and drove in the other three with a double down the left field line to make the game 6-2. Tech would pick up two more in the bottom of the sixth before the game was called 8-2.
“There probably was not any nervousness in the player’s minds, but in my mind there was definitely [some nervousness]. You definitely didn’t want them to take the lead,” Hall said.
Sunday’s game against Coastal Carolina was canceled due to rain. The game will not be rescheduled.
The Jackets play today at home against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights beginning at 4 p.m. to kick off a three-game series. Wood (3-0, 3.94 ERA, 2.00 WHIP) will start this afternoon’s game, while junior Lee Hyde (1-0, 2.57 ERA, 1.64 WHIP) will start Saturday. It will be Tim Ladd, Ryan Turner or David Duncan starting on Sunday. Games are played at Russ Chandler Stadium.
