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Jackets Shutout WCU on Senior Day

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THE FLATS – Georgia Tech baseball (33-14, 15-9 ACC) enjoyed its most dominant win of the season on Sunday afternoon, securing the series sweep of Western Carolina (23-24) in seven innings, 13-0 from inside Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium. Senior Jaylen Paden matched his season high with eight strikeouts over 5.0 shutout innings before Porter Buursema and Alex Hernandez combined for the next 2.0 innings to complete the first shutout of the season. On the offensive side, Tech scored runs in all seven innings, getting contributions from every spot in the lineup and headlined by a two-home run game from Drew Burress.

QUICK HITS: THE TEAM

  • Tech is now 33-14, tied with 2019 for the best start to a season in 14 years (since 2011).
  • This was the first shutout of the season for Tech and its first since Georgia State last season (Feb. 27). The Jackets allowed only two hits, the fewest since a one-hit showing against Miami last year (April 28).
  • The Tech offense delivered 13 runs, its 21st double-digit scoring output of the season, Tech is 20-1 when scoring 10 or more in a game.
  • This was GT’s 11th mercy-rule win of the season, the most in program history.
  • The Jackets connected for four doubles today, bringing the season total to 125, the most among Power 4 schools.
  • Georgia Tech is averaging 2.66 doubles per game this season (125 in 47 games) – the program record for doubles/game is 2.51, set in 1987.
  • The Georgia Tech bullpen pitched two scoreless innings today, bringing their season ERA to 3.96, the lowest in 11 seasons (since 2014).
  • The Georgia Tech starting pitcher was credited with a win in all three games this weekend, marking the first time that’s happened over a three-game series since 2020 vs. Ohio State.
  • The pitching staff struck out 9 batters today, marking the 35th time this season that the pitchers have struck out at least one-per-inning pitched (74.5 percent).
  • Tech pitching has struck out 9.79-per-nine-innings over the course of the season, the program record for a full season is 10.00 set in 1998.
  • GT allowed only six base runners today, its fewest of the season and fewest since Feb. 27, 2024 against Georgia State (5).
  • The Jackets hit three home runs today, marking the 10th time the team has combined for 3+ long balls this season, GT is 8-2 in those games.
  • The Yellow Jackets have three players with 50+ RBI this season: Alex Hernandez (52), Drew Burress (51) and Kyle Lodise (50) for the first time in two years.

QUICK HITS: THE BATS

  • Sophomore Drew Burress reached base for the eighth game in a row and 46th time out of 47 games this season, going 2-for-4 with a pair of home runs and a walk.
  • It was his first multi-homer game of the season and sixth of his career as he now leads the team with 15 home runs this season.
  • The homer makes Burress the 17th member of the 40-home run club over the course of Georgia Tech’s history. He is now in a three-way tie for 15th on the all-time leaderboard, tied with Jason Basil (1998-01) and Jeremy Slayden (2002-05). Burress is two homers away from cracking the Top 10 and 17 away from the program record, set by Jason Varitek (57) from 1991-94.
  • The Houston County man has hit 40 home runs over 400 career at bats in White & Gold and leads all of Division I with a .763 career slugging percentage.
  • He leads the team with 62 runs scored this season. There has not been a Jacket score 70+ in consecutive seasons since Richard Lewis in 2000 and 2001 – Burress scored 73 runs in 2024.

  • Freshman Caleb Daniel extended his on-base streak to 13 games, the longest active streak on the team. He went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and an RBI single run.
  • It was his fourth straight multi-hit game, the first time he has accomplished that, and his 16th multi-hit game of the year.
  • The homer was his 6th of the season, the fourth most on the team behind Burress (15), Lodise (14) and Hernandez (10).
  • Daniel as scored 45 runs this season, the third most among Power 4 freshmen.

  • Tech freshmen have accounted for 26 HRs this season – led by 10 from Alex Hernandez. GT had 32 homers from freshman last year, headlined by a freshman record 25 off the bat of Drew Burress.
  • Freshman Alex Hernandez got the scoring started with an RBI base knock in the first inning, it was his 52nd RBI of the year, the most among Power 4 freshmen.

 

  • Freshman Drew Rogers got his first start in nearly two months, making it count with a 3-for-3 performance, recording his first-career triple and his first two doubles for a three extra-base-hit showing. He doubled his career extra-base hit tally after entering the game with three home runs to his name.
  • This was his first-career three-hit game and his second multi-hit game in White & Gold.
  • Junior Kyle Lodise delivered his 16th multi-RBI game of the season, going 1-for-4 with a two-RBI double and a walk. That brought his season RBI total to 50 – the first time he has reached 50 RBI in a season over his collegiate career after putting up 49 at Augusta University (DII) last season.
  • He hit his 19th double of the year, tying him with Burress for the most on the team and the 2nd most among Power 4 players.
  • Sophomore Kent Schmidt made his first start in the field since March 18th (25 games), starting at first base. He went 2-for-3 with a double, two RBI and two runs scored.
  • It was his 13th double of the season, he is averaging 0.48 doubles per game, the most on the team and on track for 22 had he played in every game, that would lead all of Power 4 and be 5th most in Division I.
  • Sophomore Vahn Lackey set a career high with three stolen bases today. He leads the team with 16 stolen bases this season (16/18 – 88.9 %), even more impressive when considering he is holding opponents to just a .636 stolen base percentage against him (21/33), including a 50% success rate since the start of April (8/16).
  • Senior Nathan Waugh pinch hit in the sixth inning, coming around to score his 12th run of the season, on senior day.

QUICK HITS: THE ARMS

  • Senior Jaylen Paden made his third start of the season and second consecutive Sunday start, dominating the WCU bats to the tune of 5.0 IP, two hits, one walk, one hit batter and a season high eight strikeouts on 71 pitches.
  • He has thrown 5.0 innings in each of his Sunday starts this season, joining Caden Spivey as the only Tech pitchers to string together consecutive Sunday outings of at least 5.0 innings this year.
  • He allowed only four base runners all game, the fewest in an outing of at least five innings since going 6.0 innings with four base runners against William & Mary on March 12, 2022 as a member of Georgia Southern, prior to transferring to GT.
  • Paden brings his strikeout total to 42 on the year, joining Tate McKee (65), Brady Jones (60) and Mason Patel (49) in the 40 K club for this season.
  • He lowers his ERA to 2.25 this season, the lowest on the team among pitchers with at least 5.0 innings pitched.
  • The effort sent him back to the win column, giving him a 5-1 record over 11 appearances and three starts.

  • Sophomore Porter Buursema pitched 1.1 innings out of the bullpen, recording one strikeout and making his first-career putout on a 99-mph comebacker that he snagged in the sixth inning.

  • He has allowed only one earned run over 3.0 innings since returning from an injury that put him on the shelf for the month of March.
  • Hernandez returned to the mound for the first time since starting a midweek against Gardner-Webb (March 18). He recorded the final two outs of the game to bring his season total to 6.2 innings. The freshman is the only underclassmen in the nation to record a save and 10 or more HRs across Division I this season, landing him on the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award Midseason Watch List.

UP NEXT­­
Tech will look to keep the winning momentum going into the week when the Jackets host Georgia Southern (25-23, 11-13 Sun Belt) on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at ramblinwreck.com/tickets and the game will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra.

Full Steam Ahead

Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.

For the latest information on the Georgia Tech baseball team, follow us on Twitter (@GTBaseball), Facebook, Instagram (@gt_baseball) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com

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