Big picture, the way Drew Burress sees it, the Georgia Tech baseball team may take some time to get humming this season. But when and if it does, the possibilities are endless.
“At the end of the day it’s all about winning baseball games, and we’ve set a goal to go to Omaha (and the College World Series),” Burress said Wednesday. “That’s what I expect for me and the rest of the team. I think if I do my part and other guys do their parts, then that’s where we’ll be at.
“We’re gonna be a young team. It’s kind of just getting experience, getting used to what we’re doing. These guys are really, really talented. It’s just, overall, a much more talented team. That’s what’s so exciting about. The ceiling’s so much higher, but also the floor is currently lower because they’re younger and not as experienced.”
Burress leads Tech into the 2025 season at 4 p.m. Friday when it opens a three-game series with Old Dominion at Russ Chandler Stadium. A sophomore center fielder, Burress hit .381 with 25 home runs and 67 RBIs as a rookie. He has already been named a preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, D1Baseball and Perfect game, put on the USA Golden Spikes Award preseason watch list and been tabbed the preseason player of the year for the ACC by D1Baseball.
Tech will need more than just Burress to produce, but having him at the top of the lineup for a second season is a big boost for a program which hasn’t made it to a Super Regional since 2006.
“I don’t want (Burress) to feel like he has to carry the team,” Tech skipper Danny Hall said. “Even though he would want that type of pressure, I just want him to be able to relax and play his game and hope that we have other guys that he kind of brings up to his level of expectation and level of play.”
Hall is starting his 32nd season at the helm of the Yellow Jackets. His 2024 team returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2024 (after missing the event in 2023) and was eliminated by rival Georgia in the Athens Regional in June.
Hall’s 2025 squad is once again a heavy mixture of transfers and freshmen, the latter of which comes to Atlanta ranked, by Perfect Game, as the second best recruiting class in the nation.
Many of those freshmen could be thrust into the lineup or the rotation, if not this weekend, then sooner rather than later.
“Had a really talented group of guys come in and a really big group of guys come in,” Burress said. “One thing I’ve been trying to instill into those guys is you have to know you belong, know you can dominate in the ACC. Confidence is key.”
Hall said sophomore right-hander Tate McKee (4-5, 7.28) will be handed the ball at 4 p.m. Friday for the season opener. Brady Jones (5-1, 7.32), a right-handed junior transfer from Georgia State, will toe the rubber to start the game Saturday, and sophomore righty Riley Stanford (2-1, 5.94) will get the nod for Sunday’s finale.
Vahn Lackey is expected to be the primary catcher to start the season. John Giesler, a sixth-year senior, could man first or third and will be joined in the infield by Kyle Lodise at shortstop and Carson Kerce at second base. Tyler Nieses, Alex Hernandez and Caleb Daniel could also be involved in the infield rotation, as well as in right field next to Burress in center. Parker Brosius is penciled in to play left field.
As for the rest of the pitching staff, which more often than not dictates the height of Tech’s potential success, The Citadel transfer Sam Swgert, Notre Dame transfer Caden Spivey, Florida State transfer Brett Barfield, Georgia Southern transfer Jaylen Payden, senior Mason Patel, sophomores Carson Ballard and Caden Gaudette and freshmen Connor Chicoli and Cole Royer are just a few of the names to note at season’s outset.
“I feel really good about the depth of our pitching staff,” Hall said. “A lot of those older guys will throw in relief and a lot of our freshmen have really made good strides.”
Tech’s nonconference schedule includes series against Marshall, Western Michigan and Western Carolina. Games against Georgia, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Kennesaw State, Mercer and Auburn also dot the slate.
The Jackets begin conference play March 7 at Virginia Tech. Hall’s team was picked to finish 10th in the ACC, a league which had four teams advance to the College World Series in 2024.
This year’s ACC tournament is scheduled to begin May 20 and will include all 16 teams playing in a single-elimination format in Durham, North Carolina.
“My expectation is just really for us to take it one day at a time, one game at a time and do everything we can with what’s in front of us that day,” Hall said. “I do feel like we’ll always play hard, compete hard, just represent ourselves in the best manner. This is a team that just needs each day, each game, each week just to continue to get better. We are relatively young in college baseball, but I think our standard never changes and we wanna play up to that standard every time we play.”
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