@GTBaseball at Duke this Weekend

March 12, 2015

>> Georgia Tech hits the road this weekend for the first time in ACC play with a series against Coastal Division rival Duke in Durham, N.C. Friday’s series opener has been moved to 3 p.m. due to impending rain. Saturday and Sunday games remain at 1 p.m. All three games will air on ESPN3.

>> The Yellow Jackets have won three straight, seven of their last eight, and are coming off a 22-6 rout of Georgia Southern Tuesday night in Atlanta. Tech is 88-32 all-time versus Duke, which includes a 30-15 record versus the Blue Devils in Durham. The Yellow Jackets swept last season’s series in Atlanta.

>> As a team, Tech is second in the ACC in average (.313) and slugging (.481), third in runs (135), second in doubles (43), third in home runs (16), and fourth in most walks (83). The Jackets rank in the NCAA’s top 25 in each of these categories, including fourth in slugging and eighth in doubles. Tech is averaging 8.4 runs/game and 1.0 homers/game. At this time last year, Tech was 9-7 with a .277 average, a .400 slugging percentage, averaging 5.2 runs/game, and 0.4 HR/game.

>> Tech is outscoring opponents 32-8 over the final two innings plus extras (20-4 in the eighth, 11-3 in the ninth and 1-1 in extras). The Jackets have already won twice via walk-offs after having just two walk-off wins last year.

>> Tech’s first-inning scoring margin is +14 (19-5). Tuesday’s game versus Georgia Southern snapped a streak of 13 straight games by the Jackets without allowing a run in the first inning. Only three opponents have scratched in the first versus Tech this year: one by St. John’s (2/13), three by Fordham (2/14) and one by Georgia Southern (3/10).

>> Freshman RF Kel Johnson brings a seven-game hitting streak into the weekend. Johnson homered, doubled and walked three times in Tuesday’s win. He is tied for the NCAA lead with six home runs. Among NCAA freshmen, he is tied for first in doubles (eight), and second in slugging (.803) and RBI (21). He opened his career with a seven-game hit streak, was held hitless in back-to-back games and is now on his current seven-game hitting streak, which he is hitting .444 (12-for-27) with four doubles, a triple, two homers and eight RBI.

>> Junior Matt Gonzalez is heating up and brings a four-game hit streak into the weekend (8-for-14, .571), which has raised his average from .184 to .270. He’s doubled in each of the last four games, homered in two of the four, scored six runs and driven in four.

>> Sophomore C Arden Pabst has thrown out 82 percent of stolen-base attempts (nine of 11) against him this season, which is the nation’s third-best percentage. He was second in the ACC last season in runners caught stealing (16) and caught-stealing percentage (.410). On Feb. 22, Pabst clubbed a walk-off, three-run home run as Tech rallied to beat Albany.

>> Danny Hall is in his 22nd season as Tech’s head coach (28th overall), and his last four seasons on the Flats have resulted in two ACC tournament titles (2012, 2014) and an ACC regular-season crown (2011). Hall is a two-time ACC Coach of the Year and is among the 15 winningest active coaches in college baseball with 1,111 wins.