Jackets Stifle Panthers, 4-2

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech baseball (14-3, 2-1 ACC) continues to showcase different ways to win, utilizing lockdown pitching, incredible fielding and clutch hitting down the stretch to defeat Georgia State (12-5), 4-2 on Tuesday night inside Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium. Tech held the visitors from across the highway to just three hits on the night as the Yellow Jackets took home their eighth victory in the past nine games.

Freshman starting pitcher Connor Chicoli produced his best outing as a Yellow Jacket (4.0 IP, 2 hits, 2 Ks, 0 runs allowed) before senior Mason Patel slammed the door with three more scoreless innings in front of some remarkable defensive plays from Carson Kerce and Parker Brosius. The Jacket bats got the job done thanks to a mammoth 1^st inning home run from Drew Burress and yet another clutch RBI, in the 7^th inning, from Kent Schmidt.

𝐖𝐄𝐁 💎 @CarsonKerce #SCTop10

ACCNX – https://t.co/T6GNSVYSQD#StingEm🐝 x #WreckHavoc x @SportsCenter pic.twitter.com/h4PMuT1vYv

— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) March 11, 2025

Foul territory is @BrosiusParker territory 🤯

ACCNX – https://t.co/T6GNSVYSQD#StingEm🐝 x #WreckHavoc pic.twitter.com/diQh8UHQTt

— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) March 12, 2025

QUICK HITS: THE TEAM

• Tech improves to 14-3 this season, tied (with 2022) for the best 17-game start to a season in 12 years (since 2013).
• The game was tied, 2-2 after six innings before Schmidt put Tech in front with an RBI single in the 7^th. The Jackets have won three of their last four games when tied or trailing after the sixth inning and are outscoring their opponents 8-1 in the final three innings over that stretch.
• Tech is 4-0 against in-state opponents this season and have won eight-straight regular season games against programs from Georgia, dating back to last season.
• The Yellow Jackets lead the all-time series with Georgia State, 74-14, following today’s result.
• This was head coach Danny Hall’s 1,425^th victory as a college baseball coach, putting him just two wins away from tying Cliff Gustafson (1,427) for the 10^th most in NCAA history.
• The Jackets allowed only three hits tonight, the fewest allowed over a nine-inning game since May 5, 2023 (vs. Pitt).
• The bullpen allowed only one hit over 5.0 innings (1.8 hits/9) – it is the fifth time this season the bullpen has allowed three or fewer hits-per-nine innings and the third time doing so while Mason Patel was involved.

QUICK HITS: THE BATS

• Sophomore Drew Burress launched a 433-foot home run over the batter’s eye in center field in the first inning, driving home Kyle Lodise who had led the game off with a double.
• It was Burress’ team-leading 6^th home run of the season and the 31^st of his career as a Yellow Jacket, passing Georgia Tech legends Joey Bart (2016-18), Jake Davies (2009-12), Pete Geist (1983-85) and Matt Murton (2001-03) on the all-time home run leaderboard as he creeps closer to the Top 10 in program history.
• It was Burress’ 20^th RBI of the season and 87^th of his still young collegiate career.
• The Houston County, Ga. native has now reached base in a career-best 35 consecutive games dating back to April 28 of last season.

𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐄𝐘𝐄@drew_burress08 goes 110 off the bat 🚀
433 onto Fowler St.

ACCNX – https://t.co/T6GNSVYSQD#StingEm🐝 x #WreckHavoc pic.twitter.com/D7n04KpdBU

— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) March 11, 2025

• Sophomore Kent Schmidt came through in the clutch, driving home Kerce in the 7^th inning with a one-out base knock. It is his second game-winning RBI in the last four games and gives him at least one RBI in 10 of his last 12 games in White & Gold.
• He extends his career-best on-base streak to 25 games and ties his career-best with an 11-game hitting streak.
• Freshman Alex Hernandez has reached base safely in all 17 games he has played at the college level after going 1-for-3 with a walk. He added an RBI to his total with a SAC fly in the 7^th to restore the two-run lead and remains the team leader with 21 RBI, the most RBI by a freshman in the ACC this season.
• Junior shortstop Kyle Lodise led off the game with a double to extend his team-best hitting streak to 12 games.
• The Brunswick, Ga. native has reached base in a career-best 29 straight games dating back to his time at Augusta University and is reaching base safely an absurd 67.9% of the time when leading off an inning this season (19-of-28).
• Sophomore Carson Kerce scored the game winning run while also flashing the leather for a career-high seven assists out of third base.
• He has reached base safely in eight straight games, scoring nine runs over that stretch.
• Freshman Caleb Daniel extended his hit streak to six games with a base hit today and has reached base safely in seven straight dating back to Feb. 28.
• Sophomore Vahn Lackey extended his on-base streak to 22 games dating back to last season, the longest of his career.
• Sophomore Tyler Neises has now reached base safely in a career-best 10 games in a row after drawing a walk as a pinch-hitter today.

QUICK HITS: THE ARMS

• Freshman RHP Connor Chicoli pitched 4.0 scoreless innings, becoming the first GT starter to not allow a run this season and the third not to allow an earned run (Tate McKee on Opening Day vs. ODU (Feb. 14) and Brady Jones WMU (March 1)).
• Chicoli exited the game after the fourth inning with his pitch count at 71. He walked the first batter of his career today after an impressive 7.1 innings without a free pass to start his career.
• Tech improves to 3-0 in games started by Chicoli (at Georgia Southern and vs. West Georgia).

Full count changeup just ain't fair @ConnorChicoli

ACCNX – https://t.co/T6GNSVYSQD#StingEm🐝 x #WreckHavoc pic.twitter.com/cx7Ts5i1bW

— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) March 11, 2025

• Freshman RHP Cooper McMullen was first out of the bullpen. He would allow his first earned run of the season after going 5.2 innings scoreless to begin his collegiate career.
• Senior RHP Sam Swygert entered the game in the fifth inning with a two-run lead and the bases loaded with nobody out, sitting down all three batters he faced and only allowing one inherited runner to score off a ground ball with weak contact, keeping Tech in front, 2-1.
• The very next inning it was junior LHP Brett Barfield who came in, this time with runners at 1^st and 2^nd with only one away, an inherited runner came around to score off another ground ball before working out of the inning with the score 2-2.
• Mason Patel slammed the door, pitching the final 3.0 innings and allowing only one base runner to secure his sixth victory in as many appearances, still without allowing a run.
• Patel becomes the first Tech pitcher this century to have won all six of his first appearances in a season.
• The Knoxville, Tenn. native has still not allowed a run, pitching 20.0 innings with a 0.00 ERA, a 0.45 WHIP and a .090 opponent batting average.
• He leads the nation in wins (6) and WHIP (0.45) and remains the only pitcher in the nation to not allow a run with 10+ IP and at least 1 inning/Team Game.

UP NEXT­­
The Jackets get back to ACC play with a three-game series against Pitt (9-5, 0-0 ACC) this weekend at Mac Nease Baseball Park. The series is scheduled to be Friday-Sunday (March 14-16) at 6 p.m. (Friday), 4 p.m. (Saturday) and 1 p.m. (Sunday). With inclement weather in the forecast, stay tuned to ramblinwreck.com and the GT Baseball social media feeds for any schedule changes. The games 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.