No. 19 Tech Comes Up Short on Friday Night vs. No. 3 Clemson

THE FLAST – No. 19/25 Georgia Tech baseball (21-5, 7-3 ACC) saw its five-game winning streak snapped on Friday night, falling to No. 3/6 Clemson (25-4, 5-2 ACC) by a final score of 9-7 in front of a season high 2,911 fans at Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium.

The top three hitters in the lineup (Kyle Lodise, Drew Burress and Caleb Daniel) combined for six runs scored over the course of the game as the Yellow Jackets rallied from a 5-2 deficit to tie it, 6-6, after seven innings. But Clemson would tack on three runs in the final two innings and, despite bringing the go-ahead run to the plate in the eighth and the tying run to the dish in the ninth, Tech would fly out the warning track in both instances, dropping its fifth game of the season and third in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

QUICK HITS: THE TEAM

• Tech falls to 21-5 for the season. It’s best start in 12 seasons (since 2013).
• The Jackets have won seven of their first 10 ACC games, the best start to a conference season since 2013.
• Clemson leads the all-time series, 122-118-3 following today’s result.
• The Jackets posted three doubles (two from Caleb Daniel and one from Carson Kerce) to bring the season total to 79 – the most in the country. It’s the most doubles hit by a Tech team through 26 games since at least the turn of the century.
• Tech is the only program in the nation to have four batters with 11 or more doubles: Drew Burress (13), Kyle Lodise (13), Kent Schmidt (11) and Carson Kerce (11). This was the fifth-straight game that Schmidt has missed due to illness.
• Georgia Tech is averaging 3.04 doubles per game this season (79 doubles in 26 games) – the program record for doubles/game is 2.51, set in the 1987 season.
• Tech pitching struck out 10 Clemson batters and have struck out double-digits in each of its last six games.
• Tech pitching has struck out 265 batters this season while only walking 102 for a K/BB ratio of 2.60 – the highest through 26 games since 2019.

QUICK HITS: THE BATS

• Freshman Caleb Daniel extend his hitting streak to seven games (tied for the longest of his young career) with a pair of doubles, his first multi-double game in college.
• The Cartersville native drove in two runs, with a double in the fifth inning. He would come around to score from second base on a SAC fly from Hernandez in the next at-bat, when the Clemson outfielder mistakenly thought he had caught the final out of the inning. By the time he realized his blunder, Daniel was already screaming around third base, beating the eventual throw to the plate for his second run of the game.
• Daniel has now scored multiple runs in each of his last six games and has scored a run in every game of his current seven game hitting streak (17 in total).

Caleb Daniel!! His 2nd double of the game drives in Lodise & Burress!

These freshman Jackets😮‍💨

ACCNX – https://t.co/JXMFvZ6rIH#StingEm🐝 x #WreckHavoc pic.twitter.com/mwxrUm8KaE

— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) March 28, 2025

DANIEL SCORES FROM SECOND!!! @calebdd25

We're allllllll tied up

ACCNX – https://t.co/JXMFvZ5TT9#StingEm🐝 x #WreckHavoc pic.twitter.com/7qVU9GHdyb

— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) March 28, 2025

• Sophomore Carson Kerce extended his career-long on-base streak to 17 games with a 2-for-3 performance, driving in two runs and adding his 11^th double of the year – more than twice his output from his freshman season (5).
• Kerce now leads the Jackets with 13 RBI in ACC play, three shy of his ACC season total from last year despite playing in just over a third of the games (16 RBI in 29 ACC games).
• This was his seventh multi-RBI game of the season, putting him in fourth on the team leaderboard behind Lodise (9), Hernandez (8) and Burress (8).
• Junior shortstop Kyle Lodise extended his career-best on-base streak to 39 games, dating back to his time at Augusta University.
• He did so with panache, connecting on the second pitch he saw for yet another leadoff home run, his 10^th HR of the season and the second straight ACC series in which he has led off the team with a dinger (also Friday, March 21 at Notre Dame).
• Lodise joins Drew Burress (14 in 2024), Kevin Parada (10 in 2022 – 1^st round pick), Kyle McCann (12 in 2019 – 4^th round pick), Joey Bart (11 in 2017 – 1^st round pick) and Zane Evans (10 in 2013 – 4^th round pick) as the only Yellow Jackets to reach double-digit HRs in 26 games in the BBCOR era (since 2011).

𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐅𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐃𝐈 💣@KyleLodise launches his 10th HR of the year! 106 off the bat, 410 feet 😮‍💨

ACCNX – https://t.co/JXMFvZ6rIH#StingEm🐝 x #WreckHavoc pic.twitter.com/lPx748JB1d

— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) March 28, 2025

• Sophomore Drew Burress has now reached base in a career-best 44 consecutive games dating back to April 28 of last season.
• He went 2-for-5 with a pair of singles and two runs scored. He has scored multiple runs in six of 10 ACC games this season.
• Freshman Alex Hernandez added to his RBI total with the SAC fly that scored Daniel to tie the game at five in the fifth inning. It was his 38^th RBI of the year, the most among Division I freshmen.
• Over his last eight games, Hernandez has hit three home runs and a triple for 17 RBI and 13 runs scored while drawing 11 walks. The Cumming, Ga. native has reached base in 25 of 26 games in college.
• Sophomore Vahn Lackey extended his on-base streak to 31 games with a leadoff single in the sixth inning. That streak dates back to last season and is the longest of his career. He would come around to score off a SAC fly from Kerce, tying the game at 6-6.

QUICK HITS: THE ARMS

• Sophomore Tate McKee made his seventh straight Friday night start, pitching 5.0 innings with three earned runs allowed while striking out six to only one walk.
• He would take a no decision, keeping his record at a perfect, 4-0.
• McKee has pitched at least five innings in six of his seven starts, striking out at least six in each of his last six.
• The Yellow Jackets are 6-1 in games started by McKee this season.
• Senior RHP Mason Patel took the reins for the final four innings, allowing a pair of home runs for a total of three earned runs allowed while striking out four.
• He gets saddled with the tough-luck loss, dropping his season record to 7-1 with a save over nine appearances.

UP NEXT­­
The No. 19/25 Jackets continue the Top-25 showdown with No. 3/6 Clemson tomorrow, Saturday, March 29 at 4 p.m. Tickets can be purchased HERE. 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.

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