Feb. 25, 2008
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech (3-0) continues its season-opening 13-game homestand by hosting Georgia Southern (1-2) for a pair of midweek games beginning Tuesday at 4 p.m. and continuing Wednesday with a 4 p.m. first pitch. The Yellow Jackets are coming off a series sweep of Youngstown State on opening weekend while the Eagles enter with a 1-2 record after winning the series finale against Boston College Sunday.
Game Coverage: Tuesday’s game can be found on ACC Select (gatech.playonsports.tv) and WREK Radio (91.1 FM in Atlanta/www.wrek.org). Livestats for both games in the series will be available at Ramblinwreck.com.
Game Promotions: “$1 Weekdays” are in effect again in 2008, with a different concession item available for just $1 every midweek game. For the series against Georgia Southern, fans can receive popcorn for just $1 at the Russ Chandler Stadium concession stands.
The Yellow Jackets appear just inside the top-25 in the preseason Collegiate Baseball poll (ranked No. 25), marking the 15th-consecutive season that Georgia Tech has been ranked in the preseason top-25 since the arrival of head coach Danny Hall in 1994.
Pitching Matchup (Georgia Tech vs. Georgia Southern)
Tuesday: RHP Deck McGuire (0-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Burt Barto (0-0, 99.00)
Wednesday: RHP Brandon Cumpton (First Game) vs. RHP Justin Davis (0-0, 9.00)
Georgia Tech’s offense is led by junior RF/1B Luke Murton (.600, 2 RBI), sophomore 1B Tony Plagman (.333, 1 HR, 3 RBI) and redshirt junior DH/RF Charlie Blackmon (.308, 1 RBI).
The Teams of Late
Georgia Tech – The Yellow Jackets are coming off a season-opening weekend in which the pitching staff allowed just one run in 27 innings of work. They opened the 2008 season with an impressive 14-0 win against Youngstown State and repeated a shutout the following afternoon by stopping the Penguins, 1-0. The back-to-back shutouts tied Tech’s shutout record from all of 2007 and marked the first time since 1925 that the Yellow Jackets opened the season blanking two-straight opponents. Luke Murton was impressive at the plate after struggling for much of his sophomore campaign, going 6-for-10 with a double, two RBI, three walks and a stolen base to lead the Yellow Jacket offense in the series. On the mound, Tech’s talented starting trio of David Duncan, Eddie Burns and Zach Von Tersch were quite impressive, combining to hold the Penguins to a .185 average, while Brad Rulon (1-0, 2.0 IP), Chris Hicks (1 save, 2.0 IP), Andrew Robinson (2.0 IP), Michael Hutts (1.0 IP) and Deck McGuire (1.0 IP) tossed a combined 8.0 scoreless innings in relief.
Georgia Southern – The Eagles dropped a doubleheader to Boston College to open the 2008 campaign but salvaged the series with an 18-6 victory Sunday afternoon at JI Clements Stadium. Georgia Southern will travel to Atlanta for their first road games of the season this week and are led offensively by outfielder Matt Miller (.571, 1 HR, 6 RBI) and infielder Chris Shehan (.545, 1, 3) both of whom had stellar series against the Eagles. Georgia Southern has seven players on its roster that hit at least .400 last weekend.
Tech vs. the Opponent (Tech leads series, 77-25)
Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern will square off for the 103rd and 104th times in history this week when the Eagles travel to Atlanta for a midweek series at Russ Chandler Stadium. Tech leads the series, 77-25, and holds a 43-13 edge against Georgia Southern in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets have lost just two home games to the Eagles since the end of the 1998 season, going 16-2 vs. GSU at Russ Chandler Stadium in that span. Georgia Tech is 43-13 vs. the Eagles under head coach Danny Hall.
The Jackets and Eagles split the season series a year ago, with both teams sweeping the home games at their respective stadiums. Tech opened the year in Statesboro, dropping an 11-4 game on opening day and a 9-6 contest the following afternoon. The Jackets then held the Eagles to just two runs in each of the two games in Atlanta later in the year, winning 10-2 and 6-2.
Georgia Tech vs. In-State Opponents
Georgia Tech went 5-6 against teams from the state of Georgia in 2007 and look to turn the tide in 2008. Since 1999, the Yellow Jackets own a 77-26 (.748) record against its in-state foes. In 14 years under head coach Danny Hall, Tech is 120-43 (.736) against teams from Georgia.
Starting Rotation Lives Up to Hype Opening Weekend
Georgia Tech’s highly-touted starting weekend rotation, which consists of a pair of 2007 MLB Draft picks (Junior LHP David Duncan and redshirt junior RHP Eddie Burns) as well as a 2007 Northwoods League All-Star (sophomore righty Zach Von Tersch) lived up to the preseason hype it had been receiving by holding Youngstown State to just one run on 12 hits in 19 innings of work on opening weekend. Duncan gave up just two hits in seven innings on opening day to pick up just the second shutout of his career with a 14-0 win and Burns followed Saturday by holding the Penguins scoreless while yielding only six hits. The back-to-back shutouts were Tech’s first since the 2002 NCAA Atlanta Regional and were the first to begin a season since the 1925 campaign. The Yellow Jackets had just two shutouts all of last season, but both were complete-game shutouts – one by Duncan and the other by Burns. Von Tersch gave up just one run on four hits in the series finale to help Tech to the fewest runs given up in a three-game series in nearly 99 years.
Tech Starters on Opening Weekend
Friday, David Duncan – 1-0, 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, Opp.- .095
Saturday, Eddie Burns – 1-0, 6.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, Opp.- .273
Sunday, Zach Von Tersch – 0-0, 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, Opp.- .182
