Georgia Tech Baseball: Jackets start ACC pool play with win over ND
By Lee Cagle
Georgia Tech earned the #2 seed in the tournament and started pool play on Wednesday afternoon against Notre Dame, pulling out with a 12-6 win.
Amos Willingham (7-2) got the start and the win for the Yellow Jackets on Wednesday, throwing six strong innings giving up 2 runs on 6 hits with 4 strikeouts. Tommy Sheehan (5-6) would take the loss for ND, giving up 5 runs on 3 hits and six strikeouts, along with 3 walks. Sheehan racked up over 90 pitches in less than four frames of work.
The Yellow Jackets got off to a little bit of a sluggish start despite a leadoff single from Luke Waddell but stranding him on the basepaths in the first inning.
Despite the slow start, however, the Jackets explosive offense broke the game open in the fourth inning when back to back walks and a perfect bunt from Austin Wilhite would load the bases with no one out. Jackson Webb would lace a two-run double just inside the right-field line to give the Jackets their first lead of the day at 3-1.
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
The fun would not stop there as Nick Wilhite would put a ground ball in play to advance the runner from second to third and score another making it 4-1. The next batter Waddell would have a sac fly to score Webb from third and make the score 5-1. Guldberg would hit an infield single and then score from first on a Kyle McCann double to left. McCann would move to third on a pickoff error form the Irish but the threat would end there at 6-1.
After loading the bases again in the sixth inning, Tristin English would have a sac fly to score another run and increase the lead to 7-1. ND would score off a Tech wild pitch to move the score 7-2 in the 6th. With the bases loaded in the 7th, Kyle McCann would pop up to the infield and an error on the play would score two more runs for the Jackets making it 9-2.
Wilingham would exit the game in the seventh, giving way to Jordan Hughes, who would give up one run and Luke Bartnicki would replace him in the frame. Bartnicki would get hit around a little allowing ND to cut the lead to 9-6 before being replaced by Keyton Gibson who would get the jackets out of the jam and leave the score at 9-6 through 7.
Baron Radcliff would lead off the 8th inning with a single and would move to third on a Colin Hall double. Nick Wilhite would score Radcliff with a single up the middle and a throwing error would allow Hall to score, driving the score to 11-6. The Jackets would score a final run in the ninth inning to make it 12-6 which would ultimately be the final score.
The Yellow Jackets will continue pool play on Friday at 11 am against the Duke Blue Devils with the winner of that game advancing to Saturday’s semifinal game.