Jackets handle Bulldogs in baseball
Two college baseball polls rank Georgia Tech ahead of Georgia. Two others say the Bulldogs have the better team.
Give credit to Collegiate Baseball and the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll, which had it right Wednesday night when the Yellow Jackets beat the Bulldogs 9-4 before a Russ Chandler Stadium record crowd of 4,609.
Whoever is on top, the crowd and the rankings reflect the way this baseball rivalry has bounced back after an aberration of a season in 2007, when Tech failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time this century and Georgia won only 23 games, its lowest total since 1994. This season, only four schools nationwide have won more games than the Jackets (26-7), and the Bulldogs (20-12) lead the SEC East.
Tech can thank its freshmen for helping spark its resurgence, and Danny Hall’s most recent signing class came through big Wednesday night.
“I’ve always hated Georgia,” said freshman second baseman Tony Nichols, who scored two runs and drove in two runs with a double and a triple.
Nichols, from Leesburg in South Georgia, said the game was special to him in part because of the many friends he has on Georgia’s team. Is that any way to treat your friends?
“None of the pitchers,” Nichols said.
Classmate Deck McGuire (5-0) struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings and showed the stuff that has made him a dominant midweek pitcher all season.
“I told him he doesn’t pitch like a freshman. He pitches like a veteran guy,” Hall said. “He can throw four pitches for strikes, and I felt like he had great command of all his pitches tonight and executed his pitches against a very good baseball team.”
Relievers Andrew Robinson, Jeff Rulon and Chris Hicks held Georgia to one run on three hits over the final 4 1/3 innings.
It was the second consecutive game Georgia got only seven hits, and the Bulldogs haven’t had double-figure hits since April 1. Coach David Perno isn’t happy with what he sees as a dangerous downturn.
“We’re not very consistent right now at the plate,” Perno said. “Hopefully, we’re near the bottom, if not there.”
Tech won for the ninth time in its past 11 games. Georgia had won seven of its past eight, largely because of a bullpen that entered Wednesday night with an impressive streak of shutout innings.
Tech ended that streak, emphatically, at 26 2/3, off losing pitcher Nathan Moreau (1-1). The Jackets’ 16th and final hit of the night against five Georgia pitchers was a two-run home run by Luke Murton. It was Murton’s fourth hit and third RBI of the game.
“It’s a huge win. Tonight was a great atmosphere,” said Murton, who is hitting .352 this season after hitting .239 last season.
The dance team strutted its stuff atop the Yellow Jackets’ dugout, and spectators stood shoulder to shoulder along the third-base concourse and behind a fence down the line in right. The ones in gold and white had a lot more to cheer.
For this night, Tech, ranked as high as 10th by Collegiate Baseball, and unranked by Baseball America, was better than Georgia, ranked anywhere from 11th to 24th.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution By MIKE KNOBLER