No. 21 Baseball Visits Tobacco Road, No. 3 UNC

March 23, 2016

LEADING OFF: STORYLINES TO KNOW

1. Senior 3B/LF Matt Gonzalez is the NCAA active career leader in both hits (242) and sacrifice flies (18).
2. Georgia Tech enters this weekend’s series at North Carolina with a 9-game ACC road losing streak. Tech has not won an ACC road game since April 5, 2015.
3. Georgia Tech is 17-13 in its last 30 games against the ACC’s member schools on Tobacco Road – Duke, North Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest.
4. Through 20 games, Georgia Tech leads the nation in both double plays turned (36) and double plays per game (1.8). Since 2012, the Yellow Jackets have turned 285 double plays – the second-highest total nationally during that span.
5. In his last eight games, freshman C/DH Joey Bart is batting a team-leading .438 with five doubles and a team-high 14 RBI.
6. Junior catcher Arden Pabst has thrown out 41 baserunners in three seasons behind the plate, throwing out runners 43 percent of the time.
7. Matthew Gorst has recorded four of Tech’s six saves. Gorst owns a 0.71 ERA, allowing one earned run and just nine baserunners with 19 strikeouts in 12.2 innings.
8. Georgia Tech has used 18 different lineups this season. Only 2B Wade Bailey and SS Connor Justus have started every game at the same position.
9. Georgia Tech freshmen pitchers have accounted for 8 of the Jackets’ 15 wins this season. Tech’s eight freshmen are 8-2 with a 3.42 ERA and 69 K’s in 92.0 IP.
10. Sophomore RF Kel Johnson is currently on a career-best 15-game hitting streak. Seven of his eight doubles this season have come during his current hit streak.

SERIES HISTORY
• Georgia Tech leads the series, 73-59
• Streak: North Carolina, 1 win
• Record at UNC: 27-25
• Last Meeting: March 21, 2015 (L, 1-5)
• Danny Hall vs. UNC: 41-29
• GT in Last 5 Meetings: 3-2
• GT in Last 10 Meetings: 6-4

JACKETS’ OWN “BASH BROTHERS”
• Georgia Tech’s version of the “Bash Brothers” – senior 3B/LF Matt Gonzalez and junior RF Kel Johnson – have combined for 22 extra-base hits, seven home runs and 45 RBI with a combined .377 batting average in 20 games.
• Johnson ranks second on the team with a .618 slugging percentage, while Gonzalez is third at .593.

FRESHMAN POWER HOUR
• Georgia Tech freshmen utility players Joey Bart and Tristin English have come up big in clutch situations, becoming difficult outs in the Yellow Jackets’ potent offensive lineup.
• Bart leads the Jackets with a .435 batting average, going 20-for-46 at the plate in 13 games. He has six doubles and 18 RBI on the year, including a career-high 4 RBI on Tuesday at Kennesaw State.
• English is batting .317 with a team-leading 9 doubles with 14 RBI in 16 games. He also drove in a career-high 4 runs in Tuesday’s win at Kennesaw State.

ACC ROAD WOES
• Georgia Tech enters this weekend’s series at North Carolina with a 9-game ACC road losing streak. Tech has not won an ACC road game since April 5, 2015, when it clinched the series at Virginia Tech.
• The Yellow Jackets have not posted a winning ACC road record since 2011 when they went 10-5 and won series at Miami (3-0), Duke (2-1), Wake Forest (2-1) and Virginia Tech (2-1).
• Of the 11 ACC road series the Jackets have won since 2010, six have come in the Tar Heel State – 2010 at UNC, 2011 at Duke, 2011 at Wake Forest, 2012 at UNC, 2014 at UNC, and 2015 at Duke.

TOBACCO ROAD SUCCESS
• Georgia Tech is 17-13 in its last 30 games against the ACC’s member schools on Tobacco Road – Duke, North Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest.
• The Yellow Jackets’ most successful trips? Chapel Hill, where Tech is 7-2 in its last three trips to the UNC campus. Georgia Tech swept the series in 2010 and posted 2-1 records at UNC in both 2012 and 2014.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
• Through 20 games, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets lead Division I in both double plays (36) and double plays per game (1.8). Tech is the only team in Division I with more than 30 double plays turned this season.
• On the offensive side, the Jackets ranked 3rd nationally in doubles per game (2.75) and 5th in doubles (55). Tech leads the ACC in both categories.

STREAKIN’
• Sophomore RF Kel Johnson is currently on a career-best 15-game hitting streak with a .404 batting average (23-for-57). Johnson’s streak began Feb. 26 vs. UMBC with a 1-for-4 performance. His streak includes four multi-hit games, while 10 of his 23 hits during the streak have gone for extra bases.
• Seven of Johnson’s eight doubles this season have come during his current hit streak.

CH-CH-CHANGES
• Georgia Tech has used 18 different lineups to open the 2016 season. During Sunday’s 16-8 win over Virginia Tech, the Yellow Jackets went with a repeat lineup for the first time this season.
• Only three players have started every game for the Jackets – Wade Bailey, Connor Justus and Matt Gonzalez. Bailey and Justus are the only players to start in the same position in all 20 games.
• Georgia Tech has used the same batting lineup for four straight games; GT is 4-0 in those games.

BAPTISM BY FIRE
• Georgia Tech’s freshmen pitchers have played an important role in the Yellow Jackets’ 15-4 start. Tech’s eight freshmen hurlers – Micah Carpenter (1-0, 2.89 ERA), Bailey Combs (0-0, 0.00 ERA), Burton Dulaney (1-1, 1 Sv, 2.45 ERA), Bobby Gauvreau (0-0, 10.12 ERA), Keyton Gibson (2-0, 1.98 ERA), Jonathan Hughes (3-1, 2.45 ERA), Jake Lee (1-0, 1 Sv, 7.20 ERA), and Robert Winborne (0-0, 0.00 ERA) – have accounted for eight of Tech’s 15 wins.
• Tech’s eight freshmen are a combined 8-2 with a 3.42 ERA in 92.0 innings, while the rest of Tech’s pitching staff is 7-2 with a 3.25 ERA in 83.0 innings.

THE CLOSER
• Junior Matthew Gorst has already quadrupled his career saves output in 2016. Gorst has recorded four of Tech’s six save opportunities. Gorst owns a 0.71 ERA, allowing one earned run and just nine baserunners with 19 strikeouts in 12.2 innings.
• Gorst owns a nearly 10:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (19 K, 2 BB) this season. He had a career 1:1 ratio (48 K, 48 BB) in his first two seasons with the Yellow Jackets.

GONZO ON THE CAREER LISTS
• Senior 3B/LF Matt Gonzalez leads NCAA Division I active players with 18 career sacrifice flies and 242 career hits. He entered Tuesday tied for the active career lead with UConn’s Bobby Melley and Furman’s Jordan Simpson.
• Gonzalez is three sac flies shy of tying the school record of 21 held by Jason Basil (1998-2001). He is also 12 hits away from cracking Tech’s career top 20 list for hits.

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