Jackets ride McKee's gem to series-opening win vs. NC State

Georgia Tech has won a lot of games so far this season thanks to big nights from its explosive offense. But on Friday in the series opener of a three-game set vs. NC State, it was the Jackets’ pitching that stole the show.

Georgia Tech got an absolute gem from ace Tate McKee as he held a potent Wolfpack offense in check to steer the way to a 3-1 Jackets’ victory in front of a lively crowd at Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium.

McKee (4-0) went a career-high 7 1/3 innings and allowed just one run on four hits with three strikeouts and four walks to help the Jackets (20-5, 7-3 ACC) to the victory in the opener of a matchup between Top-15 nationally-ranked squads.

“Huge. I mean, it’s huge,” McKee said of his outing. “Just so our offense knows that the pitching staff can do it as well. You know, we as pitchers know that. We use it, you know, to pump us up when they say’, you know, ‘we can’t pitch or things like that or whatever, and the lineup’s good.’ But obviously they got going early for us, and that was big. When they give me a lead and we’re stopping quick innings and things like that, it was very helpful.”

McKee was followed by Mason Patel who closed out the game with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless work to earn his second save of the season. He allowed one hit and struck out two.

Georgia Tech’s bats were limited as well in the game as NC State (18-8, 3-4 ACC) had a strong combined pitching effort of its own led by starter Ryan Marohn (4-1) going 6 1/3 and allowing three runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and three walks in a tough-luck loss.

Fortunately for the Jackets, two of their hits went over the wall as Jarren Advincula’s two-run homer and Carson Kerce’s solo shot accounted for the team’s only three runs. Advincula finished 2-for-3 with a walk, two RBIs and a run scored.

Will Baker had Tech’s only other hit as it was his 13th double of the year, which is second nationally only behind his teammate Kerce. Drew Burress drew a pair of walks and scored a run.

“Just a great Friday night in the ACC,” said Georgia Tech head coach James Ramsey after the win. “I think, obviously Tate McKee, two out of his last three starts, man, have just been outstanding. And when you look around the league and scoreboards, the thing Tate’s always done is he’s given us the chance to win regardless. You get in situations like this where their guy’s really good. They threw the ball extremely well tonight. You know, he settled in. And just for Tate to kind of outpace from the get-go, got a lot of early outs….I think was key for Tate. Keep challenging guys, had a lot of good defense, and then, you know, get a couple clutch hits early, score first, answer and then, you know, score again in the second. We hit a lot of balls hard tonight, and so I think that was the approach and the guys did a really good job. And some nights you’ve got to tip your hat when things kind of fall where they did towards the end of the game, but really proud and just told the team that.”

Following Marohn’s solid outing for the Wolfpack, they used three other pitchers out of the bullpen as Danny Heintz, Sam Harris and Tristan Potts combined to toss 1 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings with Potts striking out two and Heintz walking one.

McKee’s outing came off of his struggles last Friday vs. Pitt in which he allowed six runs on six hits with six strikeouts and five walks.

“Yeah, I mean it was trusting the process through this week,” McKee said of bouncing back in Friday’s start. “Working hard and continuing to go back to what I do. And Pitt’s a good team. I wouldn’t say that I didn’t have my stuff that day, but they can hit. You know, tips to them. They were ready to play versus me. And I knew I had to execute versus these guys (NC State). These guys are really good, and they had a really good guy throwing against me tonight. So in order for us to win, I knew I had to be on my A game.”

Five different NC State batters accounted for their five hits with those all being singles. Rett Johnson had the only RBI with that coming on a groundout, and Brayden Fraasman had a hit and scored a run. Sherman Johnson contributed a hit and walked twice.

Scoring recap…

Georgia Tech quickly took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Jarren Advincula sent one over the right-field wall for a two-run homer.

The Jackets added another run via the long ball in the second inning as Carson Kerce led off with a solo homer to right center to make it 3-0.

NC State got on the board in the top of the fifth to cut the deficit to 3-1 thanks to an RBI-groundout by Rett Johnson.

Up Next…

Georgia Tech and NC State will be back at it on Saturday for the middle game of the series starting at 7 p.m. before wrapping up the three-game set on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.