Jackets fall in series finale to Virginia Tech

Georgia Tech fell behind three runs and rallied for a convincing 14-5 win on Saturday afternoon, but history didn’t repeat itself on Sunday as Virginia Tech built a lead thanks to a three-run top of the seventh and held on from there for the 9-6 victory to salvage one game of the three-game ACC series.

Virginia Tech (8-1, 1-2 ACC) refused to go away quietly in the series and in Sunday’s finale, battling back from a 6-3 deficit after five innings by scoring three in the sixth and three more in the seventh and shutting down the Jackets’ bats in the final innings to get out of Atlanta with a win.

“Finishing (with) a series win, always tough to go on a losing note,” said Georgia Tech head coach James Ramsey after Sunday’s loss. “You know, you congratulate Virginia Tech. They definitely made the plays when they needed to. I feel like we’ve got stuff to improve on. I think that’s why this league is so great. You’ve got to come all 30 games with your best effort or the team’s got a chance to beat you. So I think, we’re a group as a unit. We’ll talk about just the things we can do better. It’s always tough. I told the guys, you lose Friday, you win Saturday and Sunday, you feel great. You win Friday, you lose Saturday, you win Sunday, you feel great. But, you know, greatness is what this team wants to be.”

“Anytime you’re playing in those tight games, it’s good for us,” added Ramsey. “It’s good learning who we can trust. And these guys need to play in close games. So I think that’s the thing that we’re building this thing for later in the summertime, and we want to peak at that moment. So we’re just going to continue to find a lot about ourselves. But I’m glad we get to play Tuesday. And then we’ll just keep going from there.”

The Hokies had 14 hits and drew seven walks as it was a tough day for Georgia Tech (14-2, 2-1 ACC) pitchers with a lot of traffic on the basepaths. Porter Buursema (0-1) took the loss for the Jackets as he came in to star the seventh and was unable to record an out before being lifted for another reliever.

Of the seven pitchers Georgia Tech used on Sunday, only two had scoreless outings with those being Jake Lankie (1/3 of an inning, no hits) and Kayden Campbell (two innings, one hit, four strikeouts).

Cooper Underwood got the start and lasted 2 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on two hits with three walks and two strikeouts. Caden Gaudette, Caden Spivey and Justin Shadek all worked out of the bullpen too and combined to five up five runs on five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.

Virginia Tech had nine different players record a hit led by Sam Grube’s 3-for-3 day that included a double and three RBIs. Ethan Ball and Hudson Lutterman each drove in two runs with Ball having a double while Nick Locurto and Pete Daniel each had two hits and two runs scored.

Georgia Tech’s bats were held somewhat in check compared to what they’ve done already this season as the Jackets had eight total hits. Ryan Zuckerman continued his hot hitting of late with two hits and two RBIs, including a solo homer that was his sixth in the last six games.

Vahn Lackey also homered, and Drew Burress and Alex Hernandez had two hits and an RBI apiece. Carson Kerce drove in a run. Georgia Tech had chances to push the lead out more earlier in the game but ended up leaving 11 men on base and going 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

“This is an opportunity-based offense. We scored in, I think, four of the first five frames, something like that,” said Ramsey. (But) we didn’t have anything more than a two sitting up there on the scoreboard (for an inning). So a lot of guys had chances to break it open for sure. I think more of it is you go back and look…It might have been a guy made two really good pitches, and then maybe he got me off my approach, and then maybe I hit a ball right at somebody. You kind of look at the end of the game. (Kent) Schmidt has an unreal at bat, kind of getting back in the count against a really good reliever, a guy that’s pitched in this league for several years, and the ball gets hit hard right at somebody. It’s kind of the name of the game sometimes. Something needs to go your way. I think it’s, once again, just all good learning for us.”

Luke Craytor (2-0) got the win for the Hokies by pitching 2/3 of an inning in relief and allowing no runs on no hits with two strikeouts and one walk. Preston Crowl then came in to earn his first save as he shut down the Jackets’ bats over the final three innings, allowing no runs on no hits with four strikeouts.

Game Recap…

The Hokies got on the board first with a pair of runs in the top of the first as they loaded the bases with no outs and proceeded to get back-to-back sac flies from Sam Grube and Hudson Lutterman with the Jackets’ starter Underwood limiting the damage to make it 2-0.

Georgia Tech tied things up in the bottom of the second when Zuckerman sent a ball over the right field wall for a two-run homer, his seventh of the season.

The Hokies had a golden opportunity to pull back ahead in the top of the third, loading the bases with one out but Georgia Tech’s Gaudette got back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning and leave them loaded.

Georgia Tech took a 3-2 lead in the bottom half of the inning on a bases-loaded walk drawn by Carson Kerce, but the Jackets were unable to add more as a strikeout ended the inning with the bases still loaded.

Virginia Tech quickly answered in the top of the fourth to even it up again at 3-3 on a two-out, RBI single by Nick Locurto.

The game wasn’t tied long, however, as Vahn Lackey connected for a 400-plus foot solo homer to left field in the bottom of the fourth to make it 4-3 and tie his career high for home runs in a season.

A pair of two-out RBI singles in the fifth, coming from Drew Burress and Alex Hernandez, pushed the Jackets’ lead out to 6-3.

Virginia Tech rallied for three runs in the top of the sixth to tie the game back up at 6-6. Ethan Ball had a two-run double, and Lutterman followed with an RBI single.

The Hokies continued the momentum the following inning with an RBI groundout by Treyson Hughes followed by a two-run double from Grube to take a 9-6 lead before an inclement weather delay in the middle of the seventh.

The game restarted after a one hour, 57-minute delay, and Georgia Tech promptly went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh. Crowl then shut down the Jackets over the final two innings as well to close out the game.

Up Next…

Georgia Tech will host in-state foe West Georgia on Tuesday at 6 p.m. for a midweek matchup before opening another three-game ACC set on Thursday at Clemson at 7 p.m.

Virginia Tech will be off until Friday when the Hokies open a three-game series at rival Virginia at 4 p.m.