Down the Stretch: No. 20 Baseball Hosts No. 3 Miami

May 6, 2016

LEADING OFF: STORYLINES TO KNOW

1. For the fourth straight weekend, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will face a top-25 opponent. Tech welcomes No. 3 Miami to Russ Chandler Stadium for a pivotal ACC series.
2. Three current baseball student-athletes will graduate Saturday prior to the Yellow Jackets’ series opener with No. 3 Miami. Seniors Cole Pitts (business administration), Joe Wiseman (business administration) and Grant Wruble (business administration) will participate in Commencement Exercises and exchange their mortarboards for baseball caps in time for the 7 p.m. game.
3. Sophomore 3B Trevor Craport owns a team-best nine-game hitting streak. Over the last nine games, Craport is batting a team-high .500, going 16-of-32 with one home run and 11 RBI.
4. Georgia Tech enters the final stretch of the season as the ACC leader with 106 doubles. Four Yellow Jackets – Tristin English (16), Connor Justus (14), Kel Johnson (14) and Matt Gonzalez (12) – have combined for more than half of Tech’s doubles production.
5. Junior Matthew Gorst is a perfect 10-for-10 in save opportunities this season, recording an ACC-best 10 saves in 2016. Gorst ranks eighth nationally in saves.
6. Georgia Tech is one of the nation’s top offenses as the Yellow Jackets rank second in the ACC and 17th nationally with a .310 batting average. Tech ranks second in the ACC with 106 doubles, but leads the league with 2.41 doubles per game. The Yellow Jackets’ 41 home runs and 0.93 home runs per game lead the ACC.
7. While Georgia Tech leads the nation with 61 double plays, it’s been 2B Wade Bailey and SS Connor Justus involved in most of them. Bailey and Justus have combined to turn 35 of Tech’s 61 double plays. Either Bailey or Connor has been involved in 56 of Tech’s 61 double plays.
8. Senior 3B/LF Matt Gonzalez is the NCAA Division I active leader in hits (268) and sacrifice flies (19). Gonzalez currently ranks 13th on Tech career hits list.

THE GRADUATES
• Three current Georgia Tech baseball student-athletes will graduate Saturday afternoon prior to the Yellow Jackets’ series opener with No. 3 Miami. Seniors Cole Pitts (business administration), Joe Wiseman (business administration) and Grant Wruble (business administration) will participate in Commencement Exercises and exchange their mortarboards for baseball caps in time for the 7 p.m. game.

DOUBLES FOR DAYS
• Georgia Tech enters the final stretch of the season as the ACC leader with 106 doubles. Four Yellow Jackets – Tristin English (16), Connor Justus (14), Kel Johnson (14) and Matt Gonzalez (12) – have combined for more than half of Tech’s doubles production.
• Tech’s ACC-leading output has already surpassed its doubles total for the entire 2015 season. Georgia Tech had 97 doubles as a team in 55 games (A.J. Murray led the team with 16 doubles).

LEADING THE WAY
• Georgia Tech is one of the nation’s top offenses as the Yellow Jackets rank second in the ACC and 17th nationally with a .310 batting average.
• Tech ranks second in the ACC with 106 doubles, but leads the league with 2.41 doubles per game. The Yellow Jackets’ 41 home runs and 0.93 home runs per game lead the ACC.

HOLY CRA-PORT
• Sophomore 3B Trevor Craport owns a team-best nine-game hitting streak. Over the last nine games, Craport is batting a team-high .500, going 16-of-32 with one home run and 11 RBI.
• During that stretch, Craport recorded a career-best four hits – not once, but twice. Craport went 4-for-4 with 3 RBI in Tech’s 9-8 loss to Mercer on April 19. Three games later, Craport went 4-for-6 with a home run and 3 RBI in the Jackets’ 16-1 rout at Clemson on April 23.

IN THE BIG INNING
• Innings with five or more runs scored have been a key indicator for Georgia Tech in 2016. When the Yellow Jackets score 5+ runs in an inning, Tech is 5-1 (4-1 at home).
• When opponents score 5+ runs in an inning, Tech is 3-10 (1-3 in nonconference games).

CONNOR’S CAREER YEAR
• Junior SS Connor Justus is enjoying his best season with the White and Gold. Justus leads all Georgia Tech hitters with a .368 average – 119 points higher than his .249 batting clip in 2015.
• Justus’ 14 doubles, which are a career high, rank second on the team and match his combined doubles total from his first two seasons.
• Through 44 games, Justus has a career-best 63 hits, surpassing his freshman season total (53) which he accumulated in 56 games.

A TOUGH ONE TO CRACK
• Sophomore Wade Bailey is one of the toughest Yellow Jacket to strikeout in 2016 as the second baseman strikes out once every 11.0 at bats. In 90 career games, Bailey has struck out only 32 times in 376 at bats.
• Bailey’s career at bat-to-strikeout ratio of 11.8 would rank him eighth all-time in Georgia Tech history, but he currently does not qualify (needs 400 at bats).
• Statistically, sophomore Trevor Craport is the toughest Jacket to strikeout as the utility player has struck out only 10 times this season (1 in every 13 at bats).

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
• This season, Georgia Tech is 14-1 when it scores in the 1st inning, while the Yellow Jackets are 16-13 when they do not score in the 1st inning.
• In the month of April, Georgia Tech scored in the 1st inning only five times in 19 games. Tech was 5-0 when it scores in the 1st inning in April, while posting a 5-9 mark when it didn’t.
• The Jackets have scored first in only 19 of 44 games this season, posting a 16-3 mark (7-2 in ACC) in those games. Tech is 14-11 when it does not score first.

THE VULTURE
• Junior LHP Ben Parr has earned “the vulture” nickname from his teammates after picking up his seventh win of the season April 23 at Clemson. Six of Parr’s seven wins have come in relief when the Jackets are tied or trailing in the game.
• Parr is the sixth different Yellow Jacket pitcher to start the season with a 7-0 record and the first since Mark Pope in 2011.
• Since 2002, a Yellow Jacket pitcher has started the season 7-0 on nine different occasions.

#DOUBLETROUBLE
• While Georgia Tech leads the nation with 61 double plays, it’s been 2B Wade Bailey and SS Connor Justus involved in most of them. Bailey and Justus have combined to turn 35 of Tech’s 61 double plays. Either Bailey or Connor has been involved in 56 of Tech’s 61 double plays.

SHUT THE DOOR
• Junior Matthew Gorst is a perfect 10-for-10 in save opportunities this season, recording an ACC-best 10 saves in 2016. Gorst ranks eighth nationally.
• While he does have one loss on his resume, Gorst (0-1) has struck out 34 batters and allowed only two earned runs in 26.2 innings. Gorst’s 0.68 ERA would rank second nationally and tops in the ACC if he qualified (must have 1 IP / team game).
• Gorst’s streak of 18.2 scoreless innings was snapped in Tech’s 8-7 10-inning loss at Clemson.

TIME FLIES
• 28 of Tech’s 44 games this season have been played in less than three hours.
• Georgia Tech is 24-4 (18-1 at home) in games played in less than three hours. In contract, the Jackets are 6-10 (2-5 at home) in games lasting more than three hours.

EITHER GONZO OR KJ
• Either Matt Gonzalez or Kel Johnson has been responsible for driving in Georgia Tech’s game-winning run 17 times this season.
• The last seven Tech wins have been decided by Tech’s power duo. Gonzalez hit the game-winners against NC State, Georgia State, Clemson and Coastal Carolina (twice), while Johnson provided the winners against Kennesaw State, Clemson and the Coastal Carolina finale.

GONZO WATCH
• Senior 3B/LF Matt Gonzalez is the NCAA Division I active leader in hits (268) and sacrifice flies (19).
• He also ranks second in at bats (870), seventh in games played (220), seventh in total bases (371), ninth in doubles (55) and ninth in RBI (150).
• Gonzalez is two sac flies shy of tying the school record of 21 held by Jason Basil (1998-2001).
• He is currently 13th on Georgia Tech’s career hits list. He is 10 hits shy of tying current Tech assistant coach Bryce Prince (278) for ninth on the career list.
• He is currently eighth on Tech’s career doubles list and is three shy of tying former major leaguer Nomar Garciaparra (58) for sixth.

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