May 16, 2011
ATLANTA – The eighth-ranked Georgia Tech baseball team (37-15) will conclude its regular season home schedule with a midweek game against East Tennessee State (34-17) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Pitching Matchup (Georgia Tech vs. East Tennessee State)
Tuesday: RHP Matthew Grimes (6-3, 4.42, 59.0 IP, 61 SO) vs. LHP Clinton Freeman (3-3, 9.00, 33.0 IP, 25 SO)
BROADCAST INFORMATION
The GT radio broadcast can be heard over the air on WREK (91.1), the flagship station of Georgia Tech baseball, and online at RamblinWreck.com.
SERIES PREVIEW
Georgia Tech (37-15) enters the week ranked as high as No. 8 inthe Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Perfect Game USA top-25polls. The Jackets are also ranked in the Baseball America (12),USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ (14), and National Collegiate BaseballWriter’s Association (15) polls. The Jackets are coming off a hugeseries win over No. 9 North Carolina on the weekend, and have wonsix of their last seven since dropping an ACC road series atClemson April 29-May 1 … Tech has won 11 of its 13 weekend seriesthis season … The Jackets remain second place in the ACC CoastalDivision, two games behind division leader Virginia … Three gamesremain on the conference schedule. Tuesday’s game will mark the24th all-time meeting between the two school’s … Tech is 23-0against the Pirates, having most recently won two games againstETSU in 2008. East Tennessee State (34-17 returns 16 letterwinnersand nine starters from a 2010 team that went 32-28 overall andfinished third in the Atlantic Sun Conference … ETSU is coachedby Tony Skole, the uncle of Tech junior Matt Skole. The Bucs are coming off a series sweep of Campbellover the weekend … They have won 12 of their last 14 games,currently sit in fourth place in the Atlantic Sun conference …The team is batting .306, while holding a 5.05 ERA on the mound.
SERIES HISTORY
Georgia Tech is 23-0 all-time against East Tennessee State … All 23 games have been layed in Atlanta … The two teams have not met since the 2008 season … Head coach Danny Hall is 7-0 against ETSU since arriving on the Flats in 1994.
Last Meeting: The Georgia Tech pitching staff combined to hold the Buccaneers to four runs and the 14th-ranked Yellow Jackets held off a late East Tennessee State rally to win, 5-4, on April 2, 2008 at Russ Chandler Stadium.
QUICK HITS
Georgia Tech currently ranks second in the Atlantic CoastConference in batting (.310) while holding the second lowest ERA at2.76 … The pitching staff’s 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings arethe seventh best in the land, while the team’s ERA is seventh andhits allowed per nine innings are 12th. The Jackets are outscoringopponents 349-192 this season, and are averaging 10.9 hits and 6.7runs per game. Tech has recorded multiple hits in 33 of the 52games on the season, and in five of the last seven contests.Freshman centerfielder Kyle Wren leads the ACC in hits (81) while second in battingaverage (.373) and runs scored (51) … Wren has 25 multi-hit gamesthis season, and has reached base safely in 48 of the 52 games.Tech’s three weekend pitchers – Mark Pope, Jed Bradley and Buck Farmer – have combined for a 25-7 record and a 2.40 ERA… Pope holds at least a share of the lead in four differentcategories, including wins (10) and innings pitched (98.1) … His1.46 ERA is the fourth lowest in the conference. Farmer has allowedjust four runs and 14 hits in his last three starts (23 IP), andhas lasted eight innings in two of them (Went seven innings in theother). Georgia Tech has won 13 of its last 15 weekend series,including 10 of 12 this season … The team has swept five of them.The Jackets won 16 straight games from March 4 to March 29, theirlongest streak since the 2006 season. Seventeen of Georgia Tech’s34 players on the roster are freshmen … All 17 have played thisseason while 10 have made at least one start.
YELLOW JACKETS IN THE RPI
Georgia Tech is currently ranked No. 9 in the latest NCAA RPIrankings (as of May 10)… The Jackets up to No. 8 in the latestPseudo-RPI (source: BoydsWorld.com). The Atlantic Coast Conferenceis well represented in the RPI, with six teams ranked among the top25 in the nation. Virginia, ranked No. 2 in the country in the RPI,leads all conference teams while North Carolina (3), Florida State(6), Clemson (8), Georgia Tech (9) and Miami (22) all rank in thetop 25.
UP NEXT
Georgia Tech will conclude the regular season schedule, traveling to Virginia Tech for a three-game series in Blacksburg, Va. Game times are Thursday at 5:30 p.m., Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.
A FAMILY GAME FOR SKOLE
Tuesday’s game against East Tennessee State will be a family game of sorts for junior infielder Matt Skole. Skole’s uncle, Tony, is the head coach of East the Buccaneers. It will mark the first time that the Woodstock, Ga. native will play against his uncle in his career, but not the first time they will have been in opposition for competition. Skole competed at the 2010 TD Ameritrade College Home Run Derby at Rosenblatt Stadium against ETSU’s Paul Hoilman. Tony Skole was at the event, serving as the pitcher for his player. Matt placed third at the event (also hit the longest recorded home run of the competition) while Hoilman was crowned the champion.
HALL NABS CONFERENCE WIN NO. 300
Head Coach Danny Hall joined elite company on Sunday when Georgia Tech defeated North Carolina. The Yellow Jackets skipper recorded his 300th career Atlantic Coast Conference victory, becoming just the fourth coach in conference history to reach the 300 conference wins plateau. He joined Bill Wilhelm of Clemson, the all-time leader at 378, Florida State’s Mike Martin (360), and Clemson’s Jack Leggett (302). Hall, who has never had a losing season in ACC play, has already extended his streak of 15-win seasons to nine.
FARMER EARNS WEEKLY ACC HONORS
Sophomore Buck Farmer was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Co-Pitcher of the Week after winning a pair of starts over Illinois-Chicago and ninth-ranked North Carolina, the conference office announced Monday. Farmer shares the honor with Virginia’s Tyler Wilson.
Farmer won both of his starts over Illinois-Chicago and No. 9 North Carolina, allowing just one run (0.60 ERA) in 15 innings pitched on the week. Farmer yielded the one run over seven innings in a victory over the Flames on Monday, before scattering just four hits over eight shutout innings to lead the Jackets to a huge series victory in a 3-0 win over the Tar Heels on Sunday.
BLANKING THE OPPOSITION
The Tech pitching staff has combined for seven shutouts in 2011, and is one clean sheet shy of tying the school record of eight – Held by the 1906, 1971 and 1997 teams. The Jackets have blanked St. John’s (twice), Rutgers, Maryland, NC State, Boston College and North Carolina. Tech’s 3-0 win against the Tar Heels on Sunday was the first time all season that UNC had been held without a run.
BULLPEN SURGING
The bullpen has received plenty of rest due to the quality starts of Tech’s starters, but the group has been solid down the stretch this season. In the last seven games, Tech relievers have yielded just three runs and seven hits (.115 opp. BA) in 18 innings. The Jackets have gone 7-1 during that time span.
