Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, featured the highest ranked mid-week match-up of the week as #3 Georgia Tech took on #5 Georgia in the annual Spring Classic game. It was a full house at the neutral site and pretty evenly split between Georgia and Georgia Tech fans.
As the home team in this one, junior right-hander Carson Ballard took the mound for Georgia Tech in his first start and 11th appearance of the season, and his first dating back to May 6th of last year. Georgia’s lineup, one of the best in the nation alongside the Jackets, managed to tag him for two runs in the first inning on a two-run home run off the bat of senior DH Michael O’Shaugnessy, his 13th of the season for the Bulldogs. He settled from the second inning through the fourth, allowing just three hits and one walk with two strikeouts as he cleared a season-high in innings with four.
It wasn’t until the fifth that Georgia got back on the board and ran Ballard from the game. Michael O’Shaugnessy launched his second home run of the night before sophomore left fielder Henry Allen added one of his own on the very next pitch – a 459 foot shot to dead center at 111.9 mph off the bat, his 13th of the season and the furthest and hardest hit ball of the night by any hitter on either team. Ballard’s night would end with one out in the fifth as he finished with four earned runs on eight hits, two walks, and four strikeouts.
Georgia sophomore right-hander Paul Farley was on the mound for the Bulldogs, making his second start of the season and 16th appearance of the season, and coming off of 1.2 innings against Arkansas in which he allowed four earned runs. The Jackets tagged him for two runs of their own in the first and then two more in the second, taking a 4-2 lead. In the first, it was three singles in a row to start the frame off the bats of Carson Kerce, Drew Burress, and Jarren Advincula before the bases were loaded on a walk to Vahn Lackey. Kent Schmidt then grounded into a double play, but drove in the second run. In the second, there was nobody on with two outs before they got their rally going, something they’ve been very comfortable doing all year. Will Baker hit a first pitch home run 383 feet down the right field line to the Braves chop house, 102.7 mph off the bat for his sixth home run of the season. Carson Kerce followed with a double and was then driven in on a Drew Burress single. Farley’s night was over after two innings, finishing with four earned runs on six hits, one walk, and one strikeout.
Junior right-hander Jordan Stephens took over for Farley in the third before allowing three more runs as the Jackets extended their lead to 7-2 on an Alex Hernandez double, a Caleb Daniel sacrifice fly, and a wild pitch that scored Kent Schmidt. Senior right-hander Grant Edwards threw Georgia’s first scoreless inning in the fourth, pitching around Drew Burress’s third hit of the game and a walk to Jarren Advincula. The fifth inning was Georgia Tech’s biggest inning to that point as they pushed across five runs to extend the lead to 12-4. Ryan Zuckerman got the scoring started with a two-run moon shot to the waterfall in center field at Truist Park, his team-leading 15th home run of the season and one that traveled 424 feet at 108.3 mph off the bat. After Georgia’s sophomore left-hander Kenny Ishikawa then loaded the bases on an infield single and two walks, Jarren Advincula came through with his second hit of the game to drive in two more runs, his 25th multi-hit game of the season. Vahn Lackey followed that up with a sacrifice fly to drive in Drew Burress before sophomore right-hander Luke Wiltrakis came in for Ishikawa to stop the bleeding. They went on to add two more in the sixth on Drew Burress’s fourth hit of the game, a single off of junior left-hander Caleb Jameson to extend the lead to 14-4.
After Carson Ballard’s night came to an end, sophomore right-hander Jake Lankie took over, throwing a scoreless inning and two-thirds, allowing just two hits and no walks on three strikeouts. Senior left-hander Brett Barfield who has been arguably the most effective reliever for the Jackets this year, closed it out in the seventh via run-rule, throwing a perfect frame with a strikeout.
With the win, Georgia Tech snapped a four-game losing streak to Georgia dating back to 2024 as they advanced to 33-7 on the season. With the loss, Georgia falls to 32-10 on the season as they now prepare for an SEC match-up at Ole Miss. Georgia Tech will stick around in Atlanta as they welcome in Wake Forest for a three-game set starting on Friday night.
Georgia Tech Wins Extra-inning Thriller Over Duke in Series Opener
On senior weekend and Georgia Tech’s final home series of the season, they squared off with the Duke Blue Devils, a team that has underperformed all year, but looking to end their season on a high note. For Georgia Tech, it’s an opportunity to secure their postseason positioning and another step toward winning a consecutive…
Georgia Tech and Kennesaw State Meet For Their Second Mid-week Match-up of the Season
They’ll look to improve it to seven games on Tuesday evening as they hit the road to make the quick trip up I-75 to take on the Kennesaw State Owls of Conference-USA.
Georgia Tech Completes Series Sweep Over Wake Forest in Another One-run Game
they managed to complete the series sweep, this time in the same fashion they did on Friday night, winning 6-5 in a back and forth one-run contest
Leave a Reply