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Georgia Tech Baseball: Freshmen Helping Lead the Way for the Yellow Jackets

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley

LAKELAND, FL - FEBRUARY 17: A detailed view of a group of Rawlings official Major League baseballs sitting on the field during the Detroit Tigers Spring Training workouts at the TigerTown Facility on February 17, 2020 in Lakeland, Florida. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
LAKELAND, FL - FEBRUARY 17: A detailed view of a group of Rawlings official Major League baseballs sitting on the field during the Detroit Tigers Spring Training workouts at the TigerTown Facility on February 17, 2020 in Lakeland, Florida. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /
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A highly-touted recruiting class is paying off for the Georgia Tech baseball program, here in the early parts of the 2020 season.

Georgia Tech baseball in 2020 is off to a hot start, winners of seven of their first eight games. On Tuesday night, the Yellow Jackets took down Gardner-Webb in blowout fashion, 14-1. In a year that Georgia Tech had to replace quite a bit of their lineup and rotation, they needed their young highly-touted freshmen class to step up, those freshmen have done just that so far this season.

The Jackets win over Gardner-Webb was just another showing for the freshmen who are quickly showing that the Yellow Jackets are not going anywhere in the competitive ACC.

First baseman Drew Compton from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey is off to a fantastic start in his collegiate career. The 6-foot-2, 212-pounder is hitting an incredible .429 through his first 25 at-bats. He has already showed he’s a power threat as well, mashing three home runs this season including one on Tuesday night. Add in his seven RBI and it’s safe to say that Compton is living up to the hype early on that made him a top-200 player coming out of high school last season.

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Compton is not the only freshman killing it at the plate so far this season as fellow New Jersey native and former high school teammate Stephen Reid has also been putting in some work. While he may not be hitting .429 like Compton, Reid is producing at a strong rate himself. A top-50 player in the 2019 recruiting class, Reid is hitting .279 this season in 17 at-bats. Like Compton, he’s already shown his power, hitting three home runs himself to go along with five RBI.

The freshmen are not only helping lead the Jackets at the plate but also on the mound. Georgia native Zach Maxwell has only made two starts this season, one against St. Peter’s and one against Ohio State but the early results are quite promising. In a combined nine innings of work over the two starts, Maxwell has allowed just two hits and one run this season. Command has been an issue for the power-pitcher whose fastball regularly hits the high-90s, he’s already totaled seven walks, two hit by pitches, and two wild pitches. That all being said, with a K/9 of 13.0, Maxwell has been able to work himself out of any jam he’s gotten himself into so far this season.

While Maxwell is the only true freshman starter at this point, a group of freshmen are making their presence known in the bullpen. Now, while none of them have pitched more than 3.0 innings, the group of Brody Westbrooks, Ben King, Josiah Siegel, Jackson Arnold, have done quite the job. Combined, the four relievers have pitched 14.1 innings pitched allowing ONE run and just seven hits. They’ve also just allowed five walks in those innings of work while striking out a combined 13 opposing hitters.

It’s safe to say that with the combined success of Zach Maxwell and the Jackets bullpen, new pitching coach Danny Borrell is really getting through to the freshmen. But with a team ERA of 2.57, he is obviously making an impact on the entire pitching staff.

It’s important to remember that it’s still early in the season, just eight games into a season. However, getting off to a hot start in your college career is without a doubt better than a slow one. It’s easier to lose confidence than build confidence especially for young players making transitions from high school to college or amateur to professional but for these true freshmen discussed above, their confidence surely must be high. No one is expecting the freshmen to continue performing at their current pace but it surely has raised expectations heading into March for the program.

The Yellow Jackets and the Georgia Bulldogs will begin a three-game series (one home, one away, one neutral) on Friday afternoon in Athens. The two teams will then make the trip back to Atlanta for game at Russ Chandler Stadium before making their way down to Lawrenceville to finish up the series at Coolray Field.