Besides it being an opportunity to tangle with an archrival, Georgia Tech baseball coach Danny Hall saw his team’s weekend series against Georgia as a barometer for the Yellow Jackets as they go into ACC play this weekend.
It was an encouraging three days, as the Jackets took the first two games, 11-7 at Russ Chandler Stadium on Friday and 7-0 at Georgia’s Foley Field on Saturday, before dropping the series finale 12-3 at Coolray Field in Lawrenceville on Sunday in the annual benefit game for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. In the meeting of top-25 teams (Georgia was ranked 14th by Baseball America and Tech was 19th), the Jackets improved their season record to 10-2. They play Tuesday at Mercer.
This academic year, four Tech teams (volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball and now baseball) have bested their rivals from Athens, with two UGA teams (football and men’s tennis) winning their Clean Old-Fashioned Hate matchups. In head-to-head competition, only softball and women’s tennis remain.
Here are five takeaways from the three-game series:
1. Healthy bats
In the team’s first series against a power-conference opponent, Tech’s offense more than held up – 21 runs in three games, .269 batting average and .400 on-base percentage. Even in the team’s 12-3 loss on Sunday at Coolray Field, the Jackets didn’t lack for chances, leaving the bases loaded in three consecutive innings and stranding 17 total.
“Just one of those days,” Hall said. “We won the series, we’re excited about that, now we’ve got to move forward.”
Against UGA’s Friday night starter Jonathan Cannon, who was a top-100 draft prospect last year, the Jackets tagged him for six earned runs in six innings after he had made it through his first two starts of the season with no runs allowed. Catcher Kevin Parada was 5-for-13 with three runs scored against Georgia and is hitting .480 for the season.
If the Jackets can replicate that sort of production against ACC competition, they should win more than their share of games.
2. A rising star at shortstop
Shortstop Chandler Simpson presumably can’t keep up his pace (.500 batting average, .603 on-base percentage, nine stolen bases in 12 games), but his effect on the game is something to watch. Tech’s leadoff batter reached base 10 times in 16 plate appearances in the three games (twice bunting for hits) and scored three times.
In the 10 half-innings when Tech scored against Georgia, Simpson reached base in seven of them. Hall had questions before the season about how the UAB transfer (and St. Pius grad) would handle the higher level of pitching. His play against Georgia might seem to answer that. Hall said that, in 29 seasons coaching in the ACC, there’s only one other player he has seen in the conference whose speed was comparable to Simpson’s (former N.C. State star Trea Turner, now with the Dodgers).
“He can impact a game in a lot of ways,” Hall said.
3. Start of rotation set
Tech appears to be on solid ground with its first two starters, Chance Huff and Zach Maxwell. The two were almost untouchable against Georgia, with Huff giving up one run in seven innings and allowing just three hits and two walks on Friday and Maxwell throwing three scoreless innings (though he continued to have control issues, walking six).
Huff is 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA, a .131 opponent batting average and 24/4 strikeout/walk ratio. A year ago, in 20 appearances (covering 24 ⅓ innings), he had a 9.99 ERA, a .320 opponent batting average and a 22/19 strikeout/walk ratio.
“He’s throwing strikes with all his pitches,” Hall said after Friday’s game. “I think that’s the biggest change in him, is that his fastball is plenty good enough, but he’s got a slider and curveball, mixed in a change-up, but not many. But he’s been in command of all of his pitches, thrown a lot of strikes.”
4. Concerns about rest of staff
The remainder of the staff, though, is a bit of a puzzle. Aside from Huff and Maxwell’s 10 innings, Tech pitchers had a 9.00 ERA and Georgia hit .304 off them. Over the weekend, John Medich, Cody Carwile, Aeden Finateri and Camron Hill all contributed effective outings, but the remaining nine pitchers who threw against Georgia gave up at least one run, and none threw for more than 2 ⅓ innings.
Hall indicated that he’s not settled on a Sunday starter (Finateri started the third game of the first two weekend series, and Marquis Grissom Jr. went Sunday against Georgia).
“We’ve got to keep improving is probably the easiest way I can say it,” Hall said. “Felt like we’ve done that and just got to continue to focus on getting better.”
5. Tech has control of rivalry
Tech has seized control of the rivalry with Georgia. In taking two of three from the Bulldogs, the Jackets took the season series from their archrivals for the second year in a row and the third time in the past four years. The 7-0 win at Foley Field on Saturday was Tech’s first shutout win in Athens since 1997.
Prior to that, Tech had lost three consecutive season series (2016-18) and was swept in 2017 and 2018.
It is perhaps not a surprise that the Jackets’ resurgence in the rivalry has coincided with the team’s overall improvement. After missing the NCAA Tournament in 2017 and 2018, the Jackets returned to the tournament in 2019 and 2021 and certainly appear entirely capable of doing so again this season.
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