Jackets, Ramsey open practice embracing high expectations
Although it was a little chilly Monday afternoon, it still felt like baseball weather as the 2026 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets held their first official practice under new head coach James Ramsey with the regular season just over a month away.
The Jackets, who are ranked No. 2 in the Perfect Game and No. 5 in the D1 Baseball preseason rankings, are stacked with talented and experienced returning players while also adding some big-time transfers and incoming freshmen to the mix as the expectations are extremely high for Ramsey’s first year at the helm after taking over for longtime head coach Danny Hall who retired last season after 30-plus years leading the program and winning more than 1,200 games on The Flats. Ramsey said Monday during his preseason media availability that he couldn’t be more ready than he is to get to work with his team.
“Day 1, couldn’t be more excited to get going with this group,” said Ramsey. “I think there’s been some rule changes with now being able to go full team practice right out of the gate, which is exciting, especially in the area of pitcher health. But just being able to get guys out here, moving around is a lot of fun when they’re all together. Obviously expectations are high, and that’s exactly how we want them to be. This group has been a joy to coach. I felt like we accomplished a lot in the fall, kind of checked the boxes on what we needed to do. But when spring rolls around obviously it’s go time.”
Ramsey, who has been a part of the Georgia Tech staff since 2019 before taking over the head role this past offseason, added that it’s very rewarding and exciting to see all the work the staff has done to recruit and develop within the program over the last few years and have it culminate with a very talented and experienced team that has the chance to do some special things in 2026.
“More than anything we’re going to talk a lot about the talent of this group or the pro potential of this group. It’s really who they are as individuals,” said Ramsey. “You talk about the decisions you make and the time you spend recruiting and the relationships. This is one of those games where you can have someone come in quick in a transfer scenario and make you better, but really the way we want to build this thing is with guys that are homegrown in the program and it’s been a long-time coming. I think it’s been fun to see the rewards come around for those guys, but ultimately it’s who they are in the day-to-day, the way they treat each other. I’m really not worried about them handling the upcoming praise they’re going to get because those guys are just winners. They’re hungry to get going.”
Georgia Tech is coming off a 41-19 season in 2025 that included the team winning the ACC regular-season championship with a 19-11 conference record and playing in the Oxford Regional before suffering a season-ending loss to host Ole Miss to extend the program’s Super Regional drought to 19 seasons with the last appearance coming in 2006.
“They got a little taste of it last year. Winning the ACC Championship is no small feat, but this group has obviously set their sites on a lot higher things than that,” said Ramsey.
With that in mind, Ramsey said on Wednesday that he used a bit of an interesting tactic back in December to possibly provide a little motivation to this year’s team after several early postseason exits over the last few years.
“Year 8 here (for me here), we’ve had some really talented teams. And we’ve had some teams that you had a stretch of winning I think it was 13-straight ACC series from 2019 to 2021…we’ve had a lot of great moments,” said Ramsey. “You want to teach these guys so one thing we did before we left for break in our final meeting was show a video of the highs…they thought they were going to see the highs, but we actually showed them the lows. And it was the things I told them that have continued to fuel me personally and fuel the rest of our staff that’s been here throughout the journey and then also the players that have been a part of those moments (when) we haven’t gotten it done. I think that was a big thing for this team to feel the weight of it from the program and kind of get that out of the way. Because now, this team is very mission-minded. I think the vision has been set from Day 1, and they followed along every step of the way.”
Among the talented returnees are the last two ACC Freshmen of the Year Award winners, Drew Burress (2024) and Alex Hernandez (2025), who were both All-ACC First Team selections last season as well. Second-Team All-ACC picks Vahn Lackey (C) and Mason Patel (P) return as well while All-Freshman Team member Caleb Daniel (OF) is also back.
Along with that, Ramsey and staff brought in five talented transfers with a couple that will contribute heavily to the overall pitching depth and talent and a few others that will make their mark in the lineup. Another heralded recruiting class topped off the roster with multiple true freshmen expected to step into big roles early this spring.
Burress, now a junior and projected by many to be one of the top picks in this summer’s MLB Draft, said the high expectations are a great thing, but the team has to go out and prove why they are worthy of those expectations.
“That’s one thing we’ve talked about a lot in our team meetings and what not. We get it that the expectations are high, and that’s exactly where you want to be. The expectations should be high for a place like this, and they’re definitely the highest they’ve been since I’ve been here,” said Burress. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t mean anything. You’ve got to go out there and put it on the field. We’ve seen plenty of teams in the past that had very high expectations and don’t get it done. I think we are confident about our skillset on the field against any other team in the country. You have to take that a game at a time. You can’t win 40 games in one day. You’re just kind of taking it one day at a time and playing a full season is where our head’s at right now.”
Another potential first-round draft pick this summer, Lackey, said the preseason rankings and high expectations do not put any more pressure on the team than they already put on themselves.
“No pressure…we already put enough pressure on ourselves internally,” said Lackey. “We all have pressures by wanting to make it to Omaha, past years failing. So we all put that pressure on each other every day so it’s really nothing to ask. If we just do what we need to, we’ll find the success down the line.”
Georgia Tech will open the season on Feb. 14 at Russ Chandler Stadium by hosting Bowling Green at 4 p.m. in the first of three games that weekend.
Burress said that the heartbreak of last year’s regional loss in Oxford has definitely been something he and his teammates have played over and over in their minds to use as motivation going into 2026.
“We won the ACC last year. We were every bit talented enough and skilled enough to be playing in Omaha last year, and obviously for whatever reason it didn’t work out,” said Burress. “We had a couple tough games there (in the regional) in Oxford. I think that’s honestly what it’s all about. You don’t know what it’s like to win if you don’t know what it’s like to lose. I think we have such a large returning group that felt how that feels, and I think that only fuels us to go at it even harder this year.”
