June 3, 2010
Tournament Central
Live TV: CSS
Live Stats: RamblinWreck.com
Live Audio: WREK 91.1 FM
Twitter Updates: Twitter.com/gt_baseball
FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS:
Friday, June 4 (7 p.m.) – Russ Chandler Stadium (Atlanta, Ga.)
Georgia Tech – Mark Pope, RHP, So. (7-1, 4.26 ERA, 63 K’s)
Mercer – Brandon Love, LHP, So. (8-3, 6.19 ERA, 62 K’s)
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech (45-13), the No. 8 national-seed in the NCAA Tournament, is playing in an NCAA Regional for the 24th time in the last 26 years and will host the NCAA Atlanta Regional this weekend at Russ Chandler Stadium. First pitch between the Yellow Jackets and Mercer (37-22) is set for 7 p.m. Friday.
The regional begins at 3 p.m. Friday, when No. 2 Seed Alabama (37-22) meets No. 3 seed Elon (38-22). The top-seeded Yellow Jackets (45-12) play No. 4 seed Mercer, the Atlantic Sun champion, at 7 p.m. Friday. The losers of Friday’s games play Saturday at 3 p.m., while the winners face off at 7 p.m. The regional continues Sunday at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and will conclude Monday, if necessary, at 7 p.m. Every game of the regional will be televised live on CSS.
2010 NCAA Atlanta Regional Complete Schedule
Friday, June 4
Game 2 – No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Elon, 3 p.m.
Game 1 – No. 1 Georgia Tech vs. No. 4 Mercer, 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 5
Game 3 – Loser, Game 1 vs. Loser, Game 2, 3 p.m.
Game 4 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner, Game 2, 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 6
Game 5 – Winner, Game 3 vs. Loser, Game 4, 3 p.m.
Game 6 – Winner, Game 4 vs. Winner, Game 5, 7 p.m.
Monday, June 7 (if necessary)
Game 7 – Winner, Game 6 vs. Loser, Game 6, 7 p.m.
The Yellow Jackets are hosting an NCAA Regional for the eighth time since 2000 and for the 10th time in school history.
Tech was invited to the NCAA Tournament for 14 straight years from 1985 through 1998 before being left out of the field of 64 in 1999. Tech rebounded with seven-straight appearances, two of which ended in Omaha, before being held out again in 2007. The Jackets are making their third-straight NCAA appearance after hosting a regional a year ago.
The Yellow Jackets made their first appearance in the College World Series in 1994, advancing to the National Championship game before losing to Oklahoma, 13-5. Tech returned to Omaha in 2002 and again in 2006 and has a 40-29 NCAA Tournament record under head coach Danny Hall.
This Friday, Hall will be coaching in his 70th NCAA Tournament game as the Yellow Jacket skipper. He owns the school record with 735 victories since his arrival on the Flats in 1994. This season, the Yellow Jackets lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in home runs (114), and slugging percentage (.578), while second in runs (539), hits (669) and RBI (495). Tech has scored in double figures 23 times in 2010. Seven different Jackets have recorded double-digit home run totals.
Junior Thomas Nichols (.369AVG-10HR-40RBI), junior SS Derek Dietrich (.360AVG-16HR-58RBI-8SB) and senior 1B Tony Plagman (.357AVG-19HR-73RBI-8SB) are powering the Yellow Jacket offense in 2010.
