Georgia Tech vs Wake Forest Series Preview

The toughest portion of Georgia Tech’s schedule is finally behind them, but now they will look to finish strong in the last couple of weeks in conference play in the ACC. Between their three game series with Florida State two weeks ago, their three game series against North Carolina last week, and their mid-week with Georgia on Tuesday, the Jackets are coming off of a stretch in which seven of eight games were against top five ranked teams. Despite suffering their first series loss of the season on the road in North Carolina, the Jackets came out on the other side of that seven game stretch with a 5-2 record as they still find themselves ranked as a consensus top five team, and come in second in the RPI.

At 33-7 overall and 16-5 in the ACC, the Jackets are still in first place in the ACC regular season standings, one game ahead of North Carolina, and will have the chance to pull away in the standings once again as they enter a far less difficult stretch of conference play that starts with welcoming in Wake Forest on Friday night. After Wake Forest, they will play their final non-conference series against Xavier at home before welcoming in un-ranked Duke for their final home series, and will then hit the road to take on #22 Boston College to close the regular season. It’s not a difficult stretch on paper, but by no means one that the Jackets will take lightly as they have the chance to not only secure their second straight ACC regular season title, but also a national top-eight seed in the NCAA tournament that would guarantee them a host spot in both the regional and super regional rounds in the tournament.

At 28-14 overall and 11-10 in the ACC, Wake Forest has hung around the top 25 conversation all year but has only been ranked a few times, particularly earlier in the season after they went on a 15-1 stretch to open the season. Since then, they have conference series losses to Florida State, Virginia, and Miami, and series wins over Stanford, California, Pitt, and a series win over NC State just this past weekend in which they scored a total of 45 runs. With that being said, they are roughly in the middle of the pecking order in the ACC, sitting at 25 in the RPI, and in pretty good position to secure at least a three seed and maybe a two seed in the NCAA tournament depending on how the rest of their season shakes out.

These two programs haven’t met since March of 2022, so no player on either side in this one has any prior experience against each other in their respective uniforms. The last time they met, Wake Forest took two of three from the Jackets, although Georgia Tech does lead the all-time series 78-47.

Friday night’s pitching match-up will feature arguably the best pitcher the Jackets have faced all year with Wake Forest sophomore right-hander Chris Levonas on the mound. His 2.25 ERA ranks fifth in the ACC right now while his .158 batting average against is the best in the ACC and ranks fourth best in the entire nation. His 39.2% strikeout rate is the fifth best in the country right now while he also owns an 0.96 WHIP. The Jackets can expect to see some big time velocity from Levonas as he has consistently sat in the mid-90s all year with his fastball. He might even pop a few 100’s against the Jackets, something he has done a few times already. Other than the fastball, he can spin a cutter, curveball, and a slider, so it’s not just the velocity that Georgia Tech will have to manage. Levonas’s most recent start was his shortest outing of the season as he threw just 3.1 innings against NC State, allowing just one earned run, but walked five.

Sophomore right-hander Troy Dressler will get the start for Wake Forest on Saturday, his fifth start of the season after recently moving from the bullpen to the weekend rotation. In his four starts thus far, he has allowed eight earned runs across 17.2 innings, striking out 21 while walking 10. He took the place of junior right-hander Blake Morningstar who struggled out of the rotation but is looking far better in a multi-inning relief role. He’s coming off of his first save of the season against NC State as he delivered three scoreless innings on just three hits and five strikeouts while walking none. Morningstar is very likely to factor into this series in similar fashion. Sophomore right-hander Cameron Bagwell will also be making his fifth start out of the weekend rotation on Sunday after primarily working as Wake Forest’s mid-week starter earlier in the season. Bagwell has given up 11 earned runs across 20.2 innings of work in his four starts thus far.

As for Georgia Tech’s weekend rotation, it comes as no surprise that Tate McKee will start the opener on Friday night, but the rotation will look a little different for the first time in a few weeks. Jackson Blakely who has handled Sundays is still slated to start this Sunday, but the Saturday starter is still to be announced after Porter Buursema was covering Saturdays for the last couple of weeks. Buursema is coming off of his toughest outing of the season against North Carolina last week, a start in which he gave up seven earned runs in just two innings, the first time all year he has given up more than three in an appearance. Wake Forest’s offense has produced at a higher rate than North Carolina’s so Saturday’s game might be a good spot to give a different look out of the rotation.

In conference play, Georgia Tech is the only other offense in the ACC that has scored more runs than Wake Forest while their .292 batting average, .394 on-base percentage, and .501 slugging percentage all rank within the top three. The offense is led by sophomores Luke Costello and Dalton Wentz, and juniors Kade Lewis and Javar Williams. All four hitters own an OPS north of 1.000 at the moment with Costello leading the way at 1.196 as well as 13 home runs. Javar Williams will be the player to watch on the base paths as he comfortably leads the team with 25 steals, a mark that ranks second in the ACC.

Checking in on Georgia Tech’s high-powered offense, a number of hitters still own OPS’s north of 1.000, with Ryan Zuckerman now leading the way after hitting his team-leading 15th home run of the season against Georgia on Tuesday, bringing his OPS up to 1.199. Jarren Advincula is up to a team-leading .417 batting average that ranks second in the ACC after another multi-hit game on Tuesday. However, Will Baker is just a tick ahead of Advincula in the on-base department as his .488 on-base percentage leads the team.

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Georgia Tech Baseball Focus