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Georgia Tech Baseball Weekly Recap: Jackets’ bats lead the way in series win over Louisville

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley

Feb 22, 2021; West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; A general view of a baseball in the grass during Houston Astros spring training workouts at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 22, 2021; West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; A general view of a baseball in the grass during Houston Astros spring training workouts at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports /
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It’s time to quickly recap Georgia Tech baseball’s performance over the last week. The Jackets bounced back form a slow start to their week, ending it by taking two of three from the top-10 ranked Louisville Cardinals.

The Jackets started off the week with back-to-back ugly losses to Georgia State 10-1 on Wednesday and to Louisville to open their series 13-6 on Friday night. The Jackets, however, showed great resiliency on Saturday and Sunday especially at the plate taking down Louisville 19-6 and 13-9.

The series victory over Louisville is another statement win for the program after sweeping NC State on the road last weekend in Raleigh. While that series win was a bit of an eye opener, the series victory over Louisville, the ACC favorite and a title contender will turn even more heads as the Jackets make their claim to be one of the country’s elite teams.

The Jackets bats this week were once again great and now through 11 games, they’re hitting .315/.416/.528 as a team with 16 home runs and 89 RBI. Freshman catcher Kevin Parada continues to lead the way, scorching the ball at the plate with a .486 batting average in 10 games and nine starts. He’s getting it done in every way possible and has shown just terrific plate discipline and an eye for the ball so far this season, especially as a freshman. He took home ACC Player of the Week honors last week and will have the opportunity to do so again this week after going 7-for-16 over the Jackets’ four games this week including 7-of-12 against Louisville.

First baseman Drew Compton has been a terror the plate for opposing pitchers as well with a .447 batting average and .947 slugging percentage. He already has five home runs on the season and 14 RBIs. Against Louisville, he was 6-for-10 with three home runs and five RBIs.

The Jackets success of course is not limited to just those two. Three other Jackets are hitting above .300 in Luke Waddell, Austin Wilhite, and Tres Gonzalez. Additionally Vanderbilt transfer Justyn-Henry Malloy and Stephen Reid are hitting a bit lower in terms of average but have combined for five home runs and 22 RBIs.

While the hitting remains positive, the Jackets pitching certainty had a rough week with no way to really look at in any positive manner. The Jackets over their four games allowed 38 runs, an average 9.5 per game. While the bats have been great for all but one game this season, allowing 9.5 runs over any stretch of games is a recipe for disaster and will result in losses way more than it will result in wins. As a team, the Jackets own a 5.36 ERA, allowing 59 earned runs over 99 innings pitched. Opposing hitters are reaching base at a pretty high rate, with the Jackets posting a team WHIP (walks+hits / innings pitched) of 1.55. They’ve allowed just under a hit per inning but have allowed 59 free passes already this season. Additionally, opposing hitter are hitting the ball rather hard when they make contact as 35.7% of the Jackets hits allowed have resulted in extra base hits (34-of-95), including 10 home runs. The Jackets will have to clean up their stuff on the mound before they get deeper into their schedule, their bats will not always be there to bail them out.

Now, that being said, the good news is the Jackets have now faced two of  the ACC’s best teams coming into the season and took five of six games against them. With not needing to face either NC State or Louisville again till at least the ACC Tournament, the Jackets toughest series remaining are against Miami and Virginia.

Now sitting at 8-3 overall and 5-1 in conference play, the Jackets will be off until this upcoming weekend. Starting Friday, they’ll host Pittsburgh in a three-game series.