Georgia Tech Improves Hosting Chances With Comeback Win at Duke

Drew Burress reached base five times and the Yellow Jackets rode a five-run 7th inning to a comeback victory over Duke on Thursday night in Durham. Georgia Tech added another Quad 1 victory to their resume as their RPI creeps towards the Top 20. The win also puts the Jackets one win closer to a Top 4 seed and a double bye in the conference tournament and a potential ACC regular season Championship.

It wasn’t pretty, especially for staff ace Tate McKee, who doubled his career high in walks by providing eight free passes over five innings. The sophomore right-hander was coming off a career worst start last week against Louisville, giving up 8 earned runs over 1.1 innings. On Thursday night, McKee grinded through a tight strike zone and a ton of traffic.  

“It was the best stuff overall he's had probably in the last two to three weeks,” Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall said post-game. “He made a little adjustment with [pitching coach] Matt Taylor in the week and the adjustment really worked well. He can build on this start.”

After giving up two runs in the 1st and a two-run blast in the 2nd, McKee settled in and walked the tightrope to keep the deficit at two runs and keep Georgia Tech within striking distance. The Kennesaw, Georgia native stranded 6 runners over the three innings and ended his gritty performance with a strikeout of Duke catcher Macon Winslow.

“It was just a grind,” said teammate Kent Schmidt, who echoed his head coach's sentiment that McKee had his best stuff in weeks. “He was able to battle through and that's what Friday night guys do, they battle through it. I can't even explain how proud of him for that.”

Tech got the scoring started with a two out, two run blast by freshman Alex Hernandez in the 1st inning. The first year standout is the odds-on favorite for ACC Freshman of the Year as he added to his impressive resume on Thursday. The two-way star is now hitting .340 on the year with 11 doubles, two triples, and 12 home runs with a team leading 58 RBIs. His 1.019 OPS leads all qualified ACC freshmen and despite just throwing 7.1 innings so far this year, has two saves and is holding opposing hitters to a .160 batting average.

Down 2-0 after half an inning, Duke responded by loading the bases and scoring a run before an out was recorded in the bottom of the 1st. McKee buckled down to get a ground out before inducing a rally-killing ground ball double play to escape the inning with the game tied.

After Winslow reached on a hit by pitch, Duke nine-hole hitter Jake Berger blasted a two-run homer to left center to give the Blue Devils a 4-2 lead. Duke had numerous chances to break the game open, but consistently stranded runners throughout the day. Despite drawing 10 walks and two hit by pitches, the Blue Devils just couldn’t deliver that clutch hit.

The Yellow Jackets delivered in the 7th when freshman Caleb Daniel singled against the shift to lead off the inning. Carson Kerce followed up with a sensational bunt down the first base line and beat both first baseman Jake Hyde and pitcher Owen Proksch to the bag. John Giesler, who enjoyed a 4-for-5 game last season against Duke, stepped in as a pinch hitter and delivered a long bloop single that just barely fell in fair territory to load the bases with nobody out for star slugger Drew Burress.

Burress would go down 0-2 in the count before being bailed out by a hit by pitch to drive in a run, but that was the only plate appearance the sophomore center fielder didn’t get a hit on the night. He went 4-for-4 on the night with three singles and an ACC leading 21st double. For Burress, it was the first time accumulating four hits in a game since April 21st of last season when he did it against Virginia. 

“I got some good pitches to hit and I did what I was supposed to do with it,” Burress said post-game. “That's all you can ask for.”

With the score 4-3 and the bases still loaded, Kent Schmidt crushed a line drive double off the wall in right center field to clear the bases and give Georgia Tech a 6-4 lead. Schmidt, who missed 20 games due to a foot injury, is now tied for third on the team with 15 doubles. 

“It makes it easy when you have hitting coaches like [James] Ramsey and then good players around you,” Schmidt said, modestly spreading the credit to the entire team. “DB gets a big time hit by pitch and I’ve got [Kyle] Lodise hitting behind me. It's fun, it was a great team effort.”

Hernandez would drive in Schmidt to add insurance and make it 7-4, but the Blue Devils would rally in the 8th against Georgia Tech bullpen ace Mason Patel. Duke had two runs to draw within one, but once again left the bases loaded as another opportunity slipped away.

Duke had multiple chances to tie the game in the 9th after Sam Harris doubled to left center, but some luck and great defense went the Yellow Jackets way. After failing to get a sacrifice bunt down, Winslow drove a ground ball back up the middle that should’ve scored Harris from second, but with zero outs, Duke opted to be conservative and not test the strong arm of Drew Burress in center field.

Jake Berger, with zero outs and runners on the corner, put down a nearly perfect safety squeeze bunt that appeared to tie the game before trickling just foul about 87 feet down the first base line. Berger then popped out in foul territory for the first out. Duke’s lead off-man the team’s best bunter, Wallace Clark, was due up next, but Duke head coach and his staff opted not to call the squeeze play again. 

“We talked about it,” Pollard said post-game. “We felt like they would really sell out to it again with Wallace being a good bunter. It felt like Wallace was a guy who’s shown over his career here at Duke that he’s good at scoring guys from third base.” 

Clark hit a sharp ground ball to Schmidt at first, who took the time to look Harris back to third, before throwing a dart to second base to get the second out and keep runners on the corners. AJ Gracia then popped out to shallow right center field to end the game. 

“We've got three chances to score a guy from third base and we didn’t get it done,” Pollard said. “That’s disappointing.”

The Yellow Jackets are now 38-15 on the year and still in the running for a regular season ACC Championship. Should Georgia Tech sweep Duke and have Florida State and NC State each lose just one game over the next two days, they will earn the #1 seed in the ACC Tournament next week.

Their 12 ACC road wins are the most since 2000 and they’ve now won three straight over ranked opponents. It was a crucial game one win, but Georgia Tech is well aware the job isn’t done yet as they eye a Regional hosting bid. Duke, frustrated by squandered opportunities to win, will likely come out of the gate angry in game two. The Yellow Jackets, on the other hand, don’t care how they win, as long as they win.

“There were a couple of points where it could have gone either way, but at the end of the day, we won and we're the winners,” Burress said of the game after. 

Duke and Georgia Tech will go back at it on Friday night at 6pm at Jack Coombs Field on the campus of Duke University. The Blue Devils will send Andrew Healy to the mound while the Yellow Jackets will counter with freshman Connor Chicoli.