Life in the Valley

ACC Regular-Season Champs Denied Regional Host Spot

The looks on their faces set it all.

Since the 16 NCAA Regional hosts were announced the night before, Georgia Tech already knew it was hitting the road this weekend. When the Yellow Jackets’ name was called during Monday’s Selection Show as the 2-seed at the Oxford Regional, some Georgia Tech players greeted the announcement with all the excitement of just being told they’d get a free colonoscopy as part of the trip.

Georgia Tech will take on Western Kentucky in Friday’s first game of the double-elimination Oxford Regional.

The Yellow Jackets (40-17, 19-11 ACC) are ranked 18th by D1Baseball, and started the season 29-7. They reached #13 in the country before a loss to Georgia on April 15 was followed up with a sweep by Miami-Fla., a 1-0 loss at Auburn, then dropping the first 2 of a home series against Virginia. Georgia Tech went 11-10 down the stretch, bowing out in the 2nd round of the ACC Tournament with a 9-4 loss to Clemson after beating Cal in the opening round.

But at 19-11 in a strong conference, many would say is second-best in the country behind the SEC, getting shipped as the #2 seed to play the #10 seed does seem a little harsh. The question is, what will the Yellow Jackets do about it?

Offensively, Georgia Tech has been bolstered by the return of Kent Schmidt, who missed more than a month during the middle of the season. Since his return April 25 vs. Virginia, Schmidt has only been held hitless twice in 16 games, and he’s currently riding an 11-game hitting streak that’s seen Schmidt go 19-for-45 (.422), and he’s had 2 hits exactly in each of his last 7 games. Schmidt is hitting .400 overall with 16 doubles, 40 RBIs, and .1.027.

But most of the conversation around Georgia Tech’s offense starts with Drew Burress. He leads the Yellow Jackets in homers (18) and is tied for the RBI lead (61) with Alex Hernandez. Burress also has 23 doubles, 48 walks, 10 steals, and he’s scored 72 runs in 57 games. Burress hit .339 and has.an 1.169 OPS. Burress is one of 7 Yellow Jackets hitting at least .316 – the team is batting .315, which is 13th-best in the country. Georgia Tech hit 86 homers and bashed 141 doubles, which is tied with Arizona State and Austin Peay for 3rd in the nation. Georgia Tech scores 8.37 runs per game.

When the Yellow Jackets are in the field Friday, it’s a good bet either Brady Jones (7-3, 4.30 ERA0 or Tate McKee (7-3, 5.18) will be pitching. Both made all 15 starts this season. Jones pitched 67 innings and fanned 73; McKee struck out 77 in 73 innings. Batters are hitting just .229 against Jones, who allowed just 7 homers. Jones also has a complete-game shutout to his credit. The only slight with Jones perhaps is that he’s hit 16 batters.

Mason Patel led the Yellow Jackets with 5 saves and went an astounding 11-1 in 21 relief appearances with no starts. He pitched 65 2/3 innings in those games, better than 3 innings per. Patel’s 2.74 ERA and 0.96 WHIP make him a dangerous weapon to employ if Tech has the lead after 6 innings. Patel has a better than 4:1 strikeout to walk ratio. Jaylen Paden has been versatile, making 4 starts and 10 relief appearances, pitching to a 1.88 ERA and 1.16 WHIP in 43 innings with 51 strikeouts. Hitters are batting just .181 against him.

Georgia Tech (4.70 team ERA) has 12 pitchers who worked in at least 11 games this season, and 10 that made starts. Even if the Yellow Jackets end up in the loser’s bracket, pitching depth shouldn’t be an issue.

Georgia Tech has long been a solid program, turning out players such as Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek, and Mark Teixeira. The Yellow Jackets have 3 College World Series appearances, the last one coming in 2006. Georgia Tech were runners-up in 1994 to Oklahoma. This is Georgia Tech’s 36th NCAA bid. Head Coach Danny Hall is in his 32nd and final season in Atlanta; he plans to retire when this season ends. Hall has won 1,243 games at Georgia Tech and 1,451 overall, counting 6 years at Kent State.

Ed Morgans is the founder of MVCBaseball.com. An Evansville graduate, Ed has written about and broadcast college baseball, while following the sport for 40 years.