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Georgia Tech Baseball: Jackets set to begin important three-game series

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley

4 Mar 1998: A general view of a baseball laying in a glove on the grass during an Arizona Diamondbacks spring training game against the Chicago Cubs at Hohkam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona. The Diamondbacks defeated the Cubs 9-8.
4 Mar 1998: A general view of a baseball laying in a glove on the grass during an Arizona Diamondbacks spring training game against the Chicago Cubs at Hohkam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona. The Diamondbacks defeated the Cubs 9-8. /
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The Georgia Tech baseball team will get their first huge ACC test of the year starting on Friday night against the top-5 ranked Louisville Cardinals.

The Georgia Tech baseball team will hope to keep their momentum up as this weekend as they enter an important and crucial three-game series against the top-5 ranked Louisville Cardinals. The Jackets are winners of four of their last five and won last weekend’s ACC home-opening series against the Virginia Cavaliers. After taking down Mercer on Tuesday night, the Jackets hope to do the same to the Cardinals starting on Friday.

The Cardinals are the second top-5 ranked team the Jackets will have faced so far this season joining the UCLA Bruins who took two of three games from the Jackets last month in Atlanta.

It won’t be an easy task by any stretch of the imagination as the Cardinals are off to a hot start this season with a 17-4 overall record and winners of their last six. Last weekend, they swept their series on the road at Duke. They’re 9-1 in their last 10 games.

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Taking the hill for game one of the series for the Yellow Jackets will be junior right-hander Xzavion Curry. Curry is off to a quality start this season through his first five starts, picking up a 2-0 record and an ERA of 3.95. Opponents are hitting .255 off him, however, heading into Friday which creates an interesting matchup between Curry and the Cardinals dangerous lineup.

On the mound for Louisville will be sophomore right-hander Reid Detmers who has been nearly untouchable so far this season. Through five starts, Detmers is 4-0 with an 0.53 ERA as opponents hit just .124 off him.  He’s also posted 50 strikeouts through 33.2 innings pitched.

Offensively, the Jackets will look to counter Detmers with a few players who are hot at the place of recent. Michael Guldberg, the Jackets designated hitter has been nearly unstoppable at the plate and is hitting .515 through 68 at-bats so far this season. He has yet to show much pop in his bat but the Jackets will take him getting on base at a .547 clip any day of the week. Catcher Kyle McCann picked up right where Joey Bart left off last season and is hitting .392 with 12 home runs and 31 RBI. Additionally, Tristin English started off the season slow and cold but has really turned it on the last few weeks raising his average to .263 with 4 home runs and 16 RBI. As a team, the Jackets are now hitting .299.

Louisville’s offense is just as dangerous as the Yellow Jackets, hitting a combined .271 so far this season. While they don’t have many power threats, the Cardinals are good at getting on base (team OBP of .383) and playing small ball to move runners over and eventually across the plate. They won’t kill you with power, but they’ll kill you with patience at the plate and classic base-to-base baseball.

Overall, this weekend series’s should be a fun and interesting one. Both offenses are coming into the series hot while both pitching staffs have been successful as well. The Jackets will have one of their bigger tests of the season against Detmers on Friday night. Will the Jackets put Louisville and the rest of the ACC on notice? We’ll find out later tonight with a 6:00 pm first pitch scheduled in Louisville.