The Georgia Tech baseball team bounced back in a big way on Saturday with a 11-2 win over Notre Dame.
On Friday night, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets baseball team dropped the first game of their three-game series against Notre Dame 9-6. It wasn’t the start to the series the Jackets wanted and they needed but they had to change their focuses to Saturday’s late afternoon affair for game two.
The Jackets seemed to put away Friday night’s defeat pretty quickly and well as on Saturday, it was all Georgia Tech in a dominating 11-2 win over the Fighting Irish. Left-hander Connor Thomas was brilliant once again as he pitched seven shutout innings. It increases his shutout inning streak to 16 innings straight after pitching a complete game shutout last weekend against the St. Louis Cardinals. Thomas in his seven shutout innings, allowed just five hit while striking out 10.
The Jackets bullpen didn’t have a great followup to their rough Friday night showing but had plenty of room to work with. Both Will Shirah and Cort Roedig pitched in relief on Saturday in the eighth and ninth innings respectively. Both pitchers gave up one run in their single innings of work on a combined four hits and two walks. While Danny Hall would like to get scoreless outings out of his bullpen, he probably won’t complain too much on Saturday since the Jackets had a pretty good afternoon with all things considered.
Offensively, the Jackets bats were alive and well with 16 hits on the afternoon with Kyle McCann leading the way with three hits in five at-bats. Luke Waddell and Tristin English both had quality afternoons as well going a combined 4-for-9 on the afternoon with 2 RBI and a walk. Colin Hall and Oscar Serratos both drove in two runs in the victory as well. Hall’s pair of RBI came on a huge two-run home run to dead center in the bottom of the second inning. It was Hall’s third home run of the season.
For the Jackets, the win is a big one, allowing them to possibly take the series on Sunday in the rubber match. The Jackets need to win every ACC series they can and while they would prefer sweeps, taking two out of three every weekend should help them stay atop the ACC standings. On Sunday, the Jackets will send Brant Hurter to the mound in hopes of winning the series before turning their attention to a top-25 Auburn team.