In the highest ranked match-up of the weekend, Georgia Tech completed the three-game sweep over #5 ranked Florida State, extending their season-high win streak to 12 games. It’s the longest win streak for the program dating back to 2016 when the Jackets won their first 12 games of the season, the last Georgia Tech team to appear in a super regional. The win also brought the Jackets to 30-5 on the season which is tied for their best start in program history dating back to 2010.
When looking at the 17-3 final score without having watched the game, it looks like a traditional 2026 Georgia Tech blowout, but it was actually a back and forth game through the first five innings. That was until the Jackets tagged the Seminoles with one of their trademark big innings in the sixth. Florida State actually led three separate times in this game, and led at some point in all three games of this series.
With the sophomore right-hander Jackson Blakely on the mound, Florida State brought his 16 inning scoreless streak to a close in the opening frame on a Brayden Dowd solo home run, his seventh of the season. They added another solo shot in the second, this one off the bat of Carter McCulley for his first of the season. The Jackets responded with a run of their own in each of the first two innings. A Jarren Advincula RBI-single tied the game in the bottom of the first, and then Carson Kerce’s fourth home run of the season re-tied the game in the second inning.
Both starters threw a scoreless third inning which would be the final inning for Florida State’s Bryson Moore. It felt like an early hook for Moore considering he went seven innings against Virginia a week ago, but his pitch count was all the way up to 67. His final line against the Jackets was two earned runs in three innings on three hits, two walks, and five strikeouts. Blakely lasted through the fifth inning, after giving Florida State their third lead of the game in the top of the fifth on a Brayden Dowd sacrifice fly after a Chase Williams triple. Blakely finished with three earned runs on six hits, one walk, and five strikeouts on 86 pitches. It was the fourth start in a row for Blakely in which he allowed no more than three earned runs.
The bullpen only had to cover two innings following Blakely as the Jackets offense exploded for 15 runs across the fifth and sixth inning to end it in a run-rule in the seventh. Jake Lankie and Brett Barfield both threw a scoreless frame, while allowing just two base runners on three strikeouts combined. The bullpen was excellent all weekend, surrendering just two earned runs across ten innings of work.
I could mention all 17 runs of scoring for the Jackets, but perhaps the highlight of it all was the trio of home runs in the sixth between Caleb Daniel, Drew Burress, and Vahn Lackey. Daniel led off the inning with his eighth home run of the season, a moonshot out to the trees in right field. After turning the order over and pushing five more runs across the plate, Drew Burress hit a three-run opposite field home run, his seventh of the season to put him at 51 career home runs as a Jacket, one shy of tying Andy Bruce for fourth all-time in program history, and seven shy of breaking Jason Varitek’s program leading total of 57. Vahn Lackey immediately followed that up with an opposite field home run of his own to go back-to-back with Burress, his 12th of the season which ties him once again with Ryan Zuckerman for the team lead.
Every starter in this one for the Jackets recorded a hit while Drew Burress had four hits and Jarren Advincula and Carson Kerce both had three. Kerce’s five runs batted in was a career-high while it was Burress’s first four-hit game of the season. For Advincula, it was his eighth three-hit game and 22nd multi-hit game on the season, both of which lead the team.
With the win, the Jackets advance to 30-5 on the season and 15-3 in the ACC, comfortably sitting atop the conference standings. For Florida State, they fall to 24-11 and 9-6 in the ACC with their fourth consecutive loss, dropping below North Carolina into third place in the conference. With that being said, next weekend will be another series in which the top two teams in the ACC will face off as Georgia Tech is traveling to Chapel Hill to take on North Carolina. There’s also a good shot North Carolina jumps Florida State in the national rankings, so we could be looking at another top five match-up. Before the Jackets head north to Chapel Hill, they’ll stick around in Atlanta for a mid-week match-up with Georgia Southern, a team they beat 25-1 early on in the season. For Florida State, they are headed back to Tallahassee to take on Stetson in their mid-week before welcoming in Notre Dame for a three game series over the weekend.
It’s also worth nothing that as of the release of this post, Texas A&M secured their series win over #2 Texas, so it’s just about a guarantee that Georgia Tech will move in as the consensus #2 team in the nation, only behind #1 UCLA on the upcoming top 25 rankings updates.
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