April 3, 2018
ATHENS, Ga. – The shorthanded Yellow Jackets, playing without three regular starters and lost a fourth in leading hitter Chase Murray who left the game in the third inning after getting hit by a pitch in the back of the head, fell on the road at No. 17 Georgia 4-0 on Tuesday night at Foley Field in Athens, Ga.
It is the first time that the Jackets have been shutout this season.
The loss snaps a four-game winning streak and drops Tech to 17-12 overall, while Georgia improves to 22-7 with the rivalry win.
Starting pitcher Brant Hurter (2-2) suffered the tough luck loss in what proved to be a pitcher’s duel on Tuesday night, as the freshman was charged with three runs on seven hits, three walks and one strikeout over 6.1 innings on the mound. He threw a career-high 103 pitches on the night.
UGA left-handed pitcher Kevin Smith (4-1) earned the win in a relief effort, as he pitched 4.1 scoreless innings, allowing two hits, one walk and struck out a career-high nine batters.
Offensively, Tech struggled up and down the lineup, as Joey Bart (2-for-4, 2B), Wade Bailey (1-for-4) and Austin Wilhite (1-for-3) had the lone hits for the game for the Jackets.
The Bulldogs recorded 11 base hits on the night, 10 of which were singles, as Keegan McGovern (2-for-4, 2B, RBI), Michael Curry (2-for-3, RBI), Mason Meadows (1-for-4, RBI, run) and Aaron Schunk (1-for-4, RBI, run) all had an RBI in the win.
Tech appeared to get on the scoreboard in the first inning, as Bailey hit a fly ball to right field with runners on first and third and one out. On the fly ball, Murray, who led off the game with a base on balls, appeared to have scored from third on a bang-bang play at the plate.
However, Georgia challenged the safe call at the plate and after further video review the umpires overturned the call and declared Murray out on the play to end the inning.
The Bulldogs threatened to score in the bottom half of the inning, as McGovern doubled to the right center field gap and then advanced to third on a Tech error in the outfield.
After a walk put runners on first and third with two outs, Tech’s Hurter got the next UGA hitter to fly out to right field to end the inning and keep the game scoreless through one inning played.
Tech put two runners on in both the third and fourth innings, yet saw a strikeout promptly end the inning both times to leave all four Jackets on base.
The Bulldogs finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth, as the home team in red got a two-out single, walk and another single to score the go ahead run from second and take a 1-0 lead to the fifth inning.
The White and Gold stranded another runner in the seventh, while the Bulldogs added to its lead in the bottom half of the inning on three-straight two-out RBI singles to push its lead out to 4-0 with two innings to play.
Bart doubled in the eighth, but was stranded at third, as the visiting Yellow Jackets stranded seven runners on base for the game.
The four hits ties a season-low for the Jackets at the plate, while the 14 strikeouts is a season-high.
Georgia also stranded seven runners on base for the night. Both teams turned one double play.
The Yellow Jackets (17-12, 6-6 ACC) will host Florida State (22-7, 7-5 ACC) in ACC play this weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Russ Chandler Stadium.
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