After a 17 day layoff, Cooper Underwood took the mound for the Jackets for the first time since a relief appearance against Clemson on March 14th. Early on, it looked like the time off did him well as he threw a scoreless first frame against Auburn, surrendering just a double to Auburn’s Chase Fralick. The command of both the fastball and the breaking stuff looked good early as he was throwing both pitch types with conviction, but it backed up in the second inning as the Tigers hitters put up three runs on Underwood. Sophomore left fielder Bub Terrell started the scoring with a one out, solo home run that snuck over the left field fence for his fifth home run of the season. The Tigers followed that up with a single and a walk before junior center fielder Carter Bristol drove in two more runs via double with two outs. Underwood walked one more, effectively ending his day at 1.2 innings with three earned runs on four hits, two walks, and one strikeout. Right-hander Jake Lankie took over to record the final out of the inning before giving away to left-hander Kayden Campbell in the third.
For Underwood, it’s been a rocky start to his collegiate career, but this is still a pitcher that is going to play a big role on Georgia Tech’s pitching staff for the next couple of years. His feel for his pitch mix and polished mechanics along with his physical projection only point to Underwood becoming one of the better left-handed pitchers in college baseball at some point. Don’t forget this was a pitcher the Milwaukee Brewers took a chance on with a 12th round pick a year ago before he decided on making it to campus.
The Jackets immediately answered in the bottom half of the second, something they werent’t able to do against Auburn’s pitching a few weeks ago as the Tigers defeated the Jackets by a score of 9-2. Ryan Zuckerman got the Jackets on the board with a one-out, two-run home run out to right field, his tenth of the year which tied Vahn Lackey at the top of Georgia Tech’s leaderboard. That didn’t last long as Vahn Lackey added a two-run shot of his own – one of the more ridiculous home runs you’ll see this year, a moonshot that landed on top of the football facility beyond the left field wall. That home run gave the Jackets a 6-3 lead – in between the two long balls, Drew Burress tagged Auburn’s Christian Chatterton for a two-run double that gave the Jackets a 4-3 lead before Lackey’s home run. Chatterton’s day was over after 1.2 innings with five earned runs allowed on three hits, two walks, and two strikeouts. Auburn freshman Justice DeJong took over and gave up the home run off the bat of Lackey on the first pitch he threw.
Senior left-hander Kayden Campbell took over in the third, but loaded the bases with just one out via two singles and a walk before handing the ball over to Dylan Loy who once again came through in a big moment, retiring the next two hitters to hold Auburn scoreless in the inning. Loy threw a scoreless fourth inning, finishing with a perfect 1.2 innings and one strikeout. Brett Barfield and Charlie Wilcox followed with perfect scoreless frames of their own before Carson Ballard took over in the seventh. Ballard threw a scoreless seventh while allowing just one walk with two strikeouts. Senior right-hander Caden Spivey threw a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts. After Cooper Underwood was removed in the second, the bullpen combined for 6.1 scoreless innings on just two hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts.
The Jackets added two more in the fourth inning via Drew Burress on a little league home run. Burress shot a two-out single through the 5-6 hole that got under the glove of left fielder Bub Terrell as Burress rounded the bases and barely beat the relay throw home.
Georgia Tech’s scoring continued to come in pairs as Carson Kerce added two more runs with his third home run of the season in the fifth. They got back on the board again in the seventh with a Jarren Advincula single followed by an Alex Hernandez double. Advincula’s single extended his hit streak to 12 games. Ryan Zuckerman drove in one more via groundout to extend the lead to 12-3. Caleb Daniel ended up putting the game on ice in the bottom of the eighth inning, hitting a solo home run on the first pitch he saw in his first at-bat since March 22nd – his seventh home run of the season to put the game away via run-rule.
With the win, Georgia Tech advances to 23-5 and are now working on a five-game win streak while Auburn falls to 20-8 on the season and have now lost four in a row and six of their last seven. The Jackets will head out west to take on California who is 1-8 in the ACC for a three-game set that will take place Thursday through Saturday. As for Auburn, they will return home to take on Arkansas over the weekend.
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