A New Season: Jackets Open NCAA Regional with UConn

June 1, 2016

LEADING OFF: STORYLINES TO KNOW

1. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are playing in their 28th NCAA Regional in the last 31 years – tied for the third-most appearances among Division I programs behind only ACC rivals Florida State (31) and Miami (31). LSU also has 28 appearances in the last 31 years.
2. First-team All-ACC OF Matt Gonzalez is the NCAA’s active leader with 294 career hits and 21 sacrifice flies. Gonzalez is six hits shy of becoming the third GT player with 300+ career hits.
3. Georgia Tech is 31-1 this season when taking a lead into the 9th inning. Tech’s streak of 94 consecutive wins when leading after eight innings was snapped vs. NC State in Durham.
4. While Georgia Tech leads the nation with 76 double plays, it’s been 2B Wade Bailey and SS Connor Justus involved in most of them. Bailey and Justus have combined to turn 44 of Tech’s 76 double plays. Either Bailey or Connor has been involved in 70 of Tech’s 76 double plays.
5. Georgia Tech outfielders have an ACC-best 21 assists this season. Senior OF Matt Gonzalez’s has a school-record-tying 9 OF assists this season and a school-record 20 for his career.
6. Georgia Tech is the only Division I team from Georgia to reach the 2016 NCAA Baseball Championship. 2016 is the ninth straight year that at least one Georgia school earned a bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, and the 15th time in the last 16 seasons.
7. Second-team All-ACC reliever Matthew Gorst is among the best closers in college baseball. Gorst is 1-1 with 12 saves and a microscopic 0.41 ERA in 44.1 innings this season.
8. In his three seasons on The Flats, junior catcher and co-captain Arden Pabst has thrown out 51 baserunners, throwing out runners 43 percent of the time.
9. Sophomore Wade Bailey is one of the toughest Yellow Jackets to strike out in 2016 (once every 11.38 at bats). Bailey’s career at bat-to-strikeout ratio of 11.86 ranks him eighth on Georgia Tech’s all-time list behind Jim Giuliani (11.87), who is in seventh.
10. Considered one of the ACC’s slickest SS, Connor Justus owns a career .959 fielding percentage (33 errors in 796 opportunities) in 169 career games, including a .965 fielding percentage in 88 career ACC games (only 14 errors).

THE BEST LEAGUE? THE ACC
• 10 ACC teams, tied for the most from a single conference in history, are among the 64-team field of the 2016 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.
• The 10 postseason teams tops the previous ACC record of eight, set in 2010 and 2013. The ACC has had at least seven teams in the tournament eight straight years.
• A record six ACC teams – Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, Miami, NC State, and Virginia – will serve as Regional hosts.

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
• He entered the 2016 season with a 5.89 career ERA. Now, junior RHP Matthew Gorst is Georgia Tech’s single-season record holder with a 0.41 ERA.
• Gorst is the only Georgia Tech pitcher to record a sub-1.00 ERA (with at least 40.0 IP). His 0.41 ERA is 66 points lower than the previous single-season mark of 1.07 set by Mike Sorrow in 1971.
• The previous low ERA by a pitcher in the Danny Hall era was 1.26 by Sam Clay in 2014.

GOING GONZO
• Friday will be a showdown between the top two active career hits leaders in Division I Baseball. Georgia Tech senior OF Matt Gonzalez is the NCAA’s active leader in career hits (294) and sacrifice flies (21). UConn 1B Bobby Melley is second behind Gonzalez with 287 career hits.
• Gonzalez is currently third in school history with 294 career hits. He needs six to become only the third Tech player in school history to amass 300 career hits.
• Gonzalez is tied for Tech’s career record for sacrifice flies with Jason Basil.
• He is currently tied for sixth on Tech’s career doubles list (58) with former major leaguer Nomar Garciaparra (1992-94).

LAST ONE STANDING
• Georgia Tech is the only Division I team from Georgia to reach the 2016 NCAA Baseball Championship.
• 2016 is the ninth straight year that at least one Georgia school earned a bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, and the 15th time in the last 16 seasons.

THAT’S GOLD, JERRY! GOLD!
• Junior P Brandon Gold is 4-1 in his last five starts on the mound, including victories over top-15 teams Coastal Carolina (April 29) and Miami (May 7).
• Gold has allowed two or fewer earned runs in 12 of his 15 starts (8-1 in those games).
• Nine of Gold’s 15 starts have gone at least 7.0 innings, including two 8.0-inning appearances vs. UMBC (Feb. 26) and Coastal Carolina (April 29).
• While Gold’s record is 8-3, the Yellow Jackets are 11-4 when Gold starts on the mound.

KEL-0. GOODBYE.
• Following a Freshman All-American season in 2015, first-team All-ACC OF Kel Johnson is not experiencing a sophomore slump. He has bested all of his offensive numbers from a season ago, hitting a career-best .323 with a team-leading 11 home runs and 52 RBI.
• Of his 21 career home runs, only five have come outside of Russ Chandler Stadium, including his last two home runs at Virginia and vs. Georgia (at Turner Field).

WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
• Georgia Tech outfielders have an ACC-best 21 assists this season. Tech’s 21 outfield assists are the third-most in Division I behind only Auburn (24) and Utah Valley (22).
• Senior LF Matt Gonzalez’s nine outfield assists are tied for third nationally. Seven of Gonzalez’s nine assists have led to outs at home plate.
• Junior CF Ryan Peurifoy ranks second on the team with six outfield assists, including two huge throwouts at home against Virginia.

NO SOUP FOR YOU!
• Georgia Tech junior Matthew Gorst is among the best closers in college baseball. Gorst is 1-1 with 12 saves and a microscopic 0.41 ERA in 44.1 innings this season.
• More impressive is that Gorst’s home and road statistics are nearly identical. At home, Gorst is 0-0 with a 0.48 ERA and six saves in 18.1 innings. On the road, Gorst is 1-1 with a 0.35 ERA and six saves in 26.0 innings.
• Gorst has not allowed an earned run in 18.2 innings, his second identical streak of 18.2 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run this season.

A TOUGH ONE TO CRACK
• Sophomore Wade Bailey is one of the toughest Yellow Jackets to strike out in 2016 (once every 11.38 at bats). In 108 career games, Bailey has struck out only 37 times in 439 at bats.
• Bailey’s career at bat-to-strikeout ratio of 11.86 ranks him eighth on Georgia Tech’s all-time list behind Jim Giuliani (11.87), who is in seventh. With his 400th career at-bat, Bailey passed Nomar Garciaparra (10.84) for eighth in school history.

APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY HOME RUNS
• The month of May brought a power surge to Georgia Tech’s offense. In Tech’s 16 May games, the Yellow Jackets hit 21 home runs – an average of 1.3 dingers per game.
• Eight different Yellow Jackets hit a home run in May. Sophomore 3B Trevor Craport and senior LF Matt Gonzalez led Tech’s power surge with five home runs each.
• Before May’s surge, Tech had 41 home runs through the first 45 games – an average of 0.91 home runs per game.

#DOUBLETROUBLE
• While Georgia Tech leads the nation with 76 double plays, it’s been 2B Wade Bailey and SS Connor Justus involved in most of them. Bailey and Justus have combined to turn 44 of Tech’s 76 double plays. Either Bailey or Connor has been involved in 70 of Tech’s 76 double plays.
• Georgia Tech’s 76 double plays is one shy of tying the single-season school record of 77 set in 2014.

ANOTHER KILLER G?
• Georgia Tech’s starter/reliever combo of Brandon Gold and Matthew Gorst have garnered most of the attention on the Yellow Jackets’ pitching staff. But, another `G’ has emerged as viable threat to opposing batters, freshman Keyton Gibson.
• Gibson has made 18 appearances this season, five as a starter and 13 as a reliever. Gibson might be best suited as a middle reliever as the rookie has allowed only five earned runs in 23.2 innings with a 2-0 record and a 1.48 ERA. By comparison, he is 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA in 16.0 innings as a starter.

TIME FLIES
• 36 of Tech’s 59 games this season have been played in less than three hours.
• Georgia Tech is 27-9 (8-6 away from home) in games played in less than three hours. In contrast, the Jackets are 9-14 in games lasting more than three hours.

MOST NCAA APPEARANCES IN LAST 31 YEARS
• Georgia Tech has played in 28 NCAA Regionals in the last 31 years (29 in the last 32 years) – tied for the third-highest number among Division I programs behind only ACC rivals Florida State (31) and Miami (31). LSU also has 28 appearances in the last 31 years.

PUT SOME ENGLISH ON IT
• First-team All-ACC and freshman 1B Tristin English leads the Yellow Jackets with 21 doubles, the most ever by a Georgia Tech freshman.

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