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ACC Play Opens as No. 2 Tech Baseball Hosts Maryland This Weekend

March 20, 2003

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ATLANTA–Georgia Tech, ranked second in the nation’s by Baseball America, opens Atlantic Coast Conference play this weekend when the Yellow Jackets host Maryland for three games. The series begins on Friday at 4 p.m., and continues on Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. each day. Live radio coverage for all three games will be available on WREK-Radio (91.1 FM in Atlanta), while radio coverage and live statistics for the series will be available on the internet at www.ramblinwreck.com.

GEORGIA TECH UPDATE (17-2, 0-0 ACC)

Georgia Tech won its first 17 games of the season, a school record, before its last two contests to Kent State (5-3) and Auburn (7-5). Tech’s 17-0 start eclipsed the previous school record of a 16-0 start in 1987.

Tech’s early success is largely due to the outstanding performances of its pitching staff. The unit has posted a 2.62 ERA in 19 games, including allowing just five earned runs in three games last weekend against Kent State, and is holding opponents to a .222 batting average. LHP Kyle Bakker (4-0, 2.94) is the ace of the Tech staff, while the bullpen has combined for a 2.20 ERA in 73.2 innings. Tech pitchers have walked 49 batters in 172 innings of work (2.56 walks per nine innings).

Offensively, the Yellow Jackets are hitting .277 as a team through the first 19 games of the season but they are averaging more than seven runs per game due to some timely hitting and 30 home runs (averaging 1.59 per game after hitting 0.97 home runs per game in 2002). The team has been led by 1B Clifton Remole (.383-0-11), DH Micah Owings (.351-5-10) and C Mike Nickeas (.338-4-19).

MARYLAND UPDATE (5-12, 0-3 ACC)

Maryland is currently 5-12 on the season and is in the midst of a five game losing streak, including being swept in three games by Wake Forest at home last weekend. The Terrapins are batting .275 as a team and own a team ERA of 6.37, and both of those figures currently stand as the worst among the nine teams in the ACC. Sophomore RHP Chris Clem (1-2, 4.29) is the scheduled starter in the series opener on Friday, sophomore RHP Sean Kane (0-3, 4.50) is scheduled for Saturday afternoon and one of two senior RHP’s – Todd Ainsworth (0-0, 4.00) or Steve Schmoll (1-3, 6.29) – will start on Sunday.

STARTING PITCHER NOTES

Friday: KYLE BAKKER (LHP) 4-0, 2.40 ERA

Junior Kyle Bakker will start on Friday in the first game of the Maryland series, and he will be making his sixth start of the season and the 30th start of his collegiate career.

Bakker is 4-0 with a 2.40 ERA in 2003 after earning wins over Georgia Southern, Rider, George Washington and Kent State in his first four starts of the season. He got no decision in his most recent start against Kent State despite working seven innings and not allowing an earned run.

For his career, Bakker stands at 21-3 with a 2.96 ERA in 210 innings pitched. Bakker currently ranks as the top command pitcher in school history, allowing just 1.63 walks per nine innings.

Bakker enters Friday’s game having won eight consecutive decisions, and he has not suffered a defeat since April 26, 2002 against Virginia.

A preseason All-America in 2003, Bakker earned second team All-America honors in 2002 after earning Freshman All-America honors in 2001. The 6-9 lefty spent the summer of 2002 with the USA Baseball National team, and he posted a 3-2 record and a 2.14 ERA in six starts.

Saturday: ANDREW KOWN (RHP) 1-0, 2.45 ERA

Sophomore Andrew Kown will make his second start of the season on Saturday in the second game of the Maryland series. Kown is 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA in 14.2 innings (five appearances) in 2003.

Kown, who saw very limited action as a freshman last spring, has been very impressive thus far this season. He has issued just one walk and struck out 12 batters, and opponents are batting just .200 against the 6-6 right hander.

Kown is 1-0 in one previous start in 2003. He worked six shutout innings and allowed just three hits against Campbell on Mar. 5 in a 3-1 Georgia Tech victory. In his most recent appearnace last Saturday against Kent State, he went 3.2 scoreless innings to close out the game and record his first career save.

Sunday’s starter is TBA.

GEORGIA TECH VS. MARYLAND

GEORGIA TECH LEADS, 49-18

Georgia Tech leads Maryland, 49-18, in a series that dates to 1921. The Yellow Jackets hold a 29-5 edge in games played in Atlanta, and have won 12 straight and 23 of the last 24 games played at Russ Chandler Stadium. Georgia Tech has never lost a three-game series to Maryland since the ACC adopted the current three-game format in 1987.

Last year, the Yellow Jackets took two of three games from the Terrapins in College Park, winning 9-6 on Friday and 12-1 on Sunday while dropping a 9-8 decision on Saturday. Kyle Bakker worked a complete game in the series opener and Victor Menocal and Jeremy Slayden both hit home runs. On Saturday, Maryland scored six runs in its final two at bats in the come from behind victory. Sunday’s game was halted in the 7th inning due to a bench clearing incident.

Georgia Tech is 24-3 against Maryland under head coach Danny Hall.

PITCHING SHINES IN EARLY GAMES, HITTING SHOWS IMPROVEMENT

Georgia Tech’s 17-2 start to the 2003 season is due largely to the success of the Yellow Jacket pitching staff. The unit, which has seen 12 different players take the mound thus far, has combined for a 2.62 ERA in 172 innings. Tech pitchers are holding opponents to a .222 batting average. More impressively, the staff has walked just 49 batters in 19 games, holding opponents to a .291 on base percentage. The Tech bullpen has been especially effective through the first month of the season, posting a 2.20 ERA in 73.2 innings.

However as impressive as the pitching staff has been, the Tech offense has been inconsistent to start the 2003 season. The Yellow Jackets hit just .263 as a team through the first 11 games of the season, but have raised the team average by more than 10 points over the last two weeks.

Tech’s current .277 average is still a relatively low number considering the Yellow Jackets hit .330 in 2002, .347 in 2001 and .342 in 2000. In fact, Tech has never hit lower than .306 as a team since Danny Hall became the school’s head coach in 1994, and the Yellow Jackets have hit better than .320 as a team in seven of his nine years at the helm of the program.

HOME RUNS COMING AT BLISTERING PACE

Georgia Tech has hit 30 home runs as a team in 19 games in 2003, averaging 1.58 home runs per game. Last season Tech hit 66 home runs in 68 games (0.97 home runs per game). The school record for home runs is 119, which was accomplished in 65 games during the 1987 season (1.83 per game).

Listed below are Tech’s home run totals since the NCAA adopted the current bat rules for the 1999 season.

GEORGIA TECH'S YEARLY HOME RUN TOTALSYear    Games   HR      HR per game1999    58      65      1.122000    66      79      1.202001    61      74      1.212002    68      66      0.972003    19      30      1.58

HOME, SWEET HOME

Georgia Tech has had great success at home in the history of Russ Chandler Stadium, winning better than 80% of its home games since the facility first opened in 1985. The Yellow Jackets are 10-2 at home in 2003.

Tech has been especially formidable at Russ Chandler Stadium over the last two seasons since the facility was torn down and rebuilt at a cost of $9.7 million. The Yellow Jackets won their first 22 games in their new ballpark in 2002, and Tech is 46-6 (.885) in the new Russ Chandler Stadium.

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