May 1, 2026

The Jackets Drop Series Opener in Extra Innings

THE FLATS – No. 3 Georgia Tech suffered a rare offensive lapse on Friday night, only scoring four runs in a 8-4 (10) extra innings loss to Xavier inside Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium. The Yellow Jackets (37-8) racked up 12 base hits but couldn’t string enough together when they needed them, bringing their home winning streak to a halt at 13 games. The Musketeers (22-25, 10-5 Big East) scored a game-tying run in the ninth inning before a two-out fly ball was ruled a three-run home run in the top of the 10^th, giving Xavier the first game of the series.

QUICK HITS: TEAM

The Jackets fall to 37-8, tied with the 1993 Yellow Jackets for the best 45-game record in program history.
GT’s win streak in the state of Georgia was snapped at 15 games.
James Ramsey still owns the best record by any first-year GT head coach through 45 games (37-8), two games better than the previous record holder, Danny Hall (35-10)
Tech has scored 471 runs through their first 45 games. It’s the most runs Georgia Tech has recorded after 45 games in the program’s 131-year history and the most runs any Power 4 team has scored through 45 games in the BBCOR era (since 2011).
GT’s 471 runs are already the 4^th highest total for a single season in the program’s BBCOR era (since 2011) and just one run shy of 3^rd (472 runs over 57 games in 2023)
GT is outscoring its opponents 471-218, that +254 margin is the highest through 45 games in program history.
Tech’s offense is currently on pace to set program records in batting average (.354 – record is .347), on-base percentage (.466 – record is .434), slugging percentage (.615 – record is .575) and runs-per-game (10.5 – record is 10.3).
The Jackets have now won 19 of their last 22 games dating back to March 22.
This was the first loss at Mac Nease Baseball Park since March 8 (54 days) snapping the nations second-longest home winning streak at 13 games.
Tech falls to 10-2 in series openers this season after setting a program record with nine-straight series opening wins to start the campaign.
Tech pitching delivered 15 strikeouts today, the third-most in a single game this season and the most since tying the program record with 19 strikeouts at Georgia Southern (Feb. 17).

QUICK HITS: THE BATS

Junior Ryan Zuckerman had a brilliant day, hitting home runs on the first two pitches he saw while playing dazzling defense at third base.
This was his third multi-HR game of the season after hitting three vs. Northwestern (March 1) and two vs. Georgia Southern (April 14). It was his sixth career multi-HR game, matching his career total from his past two seasons this year.
Zuckerman leads the team with 17 home runs this season, tied for the 24^th most in program history for a single season. He has hit the sixth most HR by a Yellow Jacket in the BBCOR era and the most since Drew Burress hit 19 last season.
He finished with three RBI, thanks to his two-run homer and solo homer. He ties Jarren Advincula for the most RBI on the team this season, with 56.
He leads the team with 30 extra-base-hits this season (17 HRs, 12 doubles and a triple).
The Yardley, Pa. native leads the team with a .737 slugging percentage, on track for the 13^th best single season slugging percentage in program history.
This was his 15^th multi-hit game of the season, becoming the sixth Yellow Jacket with at least 15 multi-hit games.
He has now delivered multiple RBI in 17 games this season, the most on the team.
Junior Jarren Advincula extended his hitting streak to a team-best 13 games, going 2-for-5 with a double and a single.
He becomes the first player in Division I to reach the 80-hit threshold this season, averaging 1.80 hits per game, putting him on pace to be the first 100-hit player at GT since 2005 (Wes Hodges & Tyler Greene).
He matched his previous career high, set over 55 games last season at Cal.
This was his team-leading 28^th multi-hit game of the season, nearly two-thirds of his games played (62.2 % of games).
Junior Drew Burress extended his hit streak to eight games, while seeing his career-best six-game multi-hit streak come to an end.
The reigning ACC Player of the Week has been on a tear in the last month (since March 28), leading the team in batting average (.465), runs (32), hits (40 – tied with Advincula), triples (2 – tied with Advincula), extra-base hits (13 – tied with Zuckerman), slugging (.733) over the last 20 games. Even more impressive is the fact that 10 of the 20 games in that stretch have come against teams ranked in the Top 15.
Burress has now delivered 67 hits this season, the second most on the team behind only Advincula.
He has produced 42 RBI, including one tonight off a single in the fifth inning, bringing his career tally to 171, tied with K.G White (1985-88) and Jeremy Slayden (2002-05) for the 20^th most in program history.
Carson Kerce brought his hit streak to four games with a 1-for-5 showing.
He delivered his 24^th double of the season, the most among Power 4 players and setting a new Georgia Tech BBCOR era record.
He stands alone in 7^th all-time with his 24 doubles, one shy of a four-way tie for 3^rd place and three shy of tying Jay Payton (1994) for the program record.
He is hitting doubles at a 0.53 per-game clip, putting him on pace for 29 by the end of the regular season.
Kerce’s 29 extra-base hits are the second most on the team, behind Zuckerman’s 30.
Junior Vahn Lackey produced his 18^th multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-5 with two singles.
Senior Parker Brosius set a new season high with three hits tonight, going 3-for-4 with a double and a pair of singles.
It was his fourth-career three-hit game and first since going 3-for-6 against Gardner-Webb last season (March 18, 2025).

QUICK HITS: THE ARMS

Junior Tate McKeemade his 28th consecutive series opening start, overcoming two earned runs allowed in his first two innings to deliver 5.0 innings while matching his season high with eight strikeouts, set in his previous start vs. Wake Forest (April 24).
Tech falls to 22-6 in series openers started by McKee (.786 win %) and have won 13 of the last 15 series openers dating back to last season.
He has now struck out 208 batters over his GT career, 40 away from cracking the all-time Top 20.
This was his seventh-career outing with at least eight strikeouts and first back-to-back eight K performance.
His 16 strikeouts over his last two games match his career best over a two-game stretch. It is the third time he has done so, most recently in the ACC Tournament (10) and the Oxford Regional (6) last season.
Junior Dylan Loy came out of the bullpen for his 15^th appearance of the season and 10^th in relief.
He pitched 3.0 scoreless and hitless innings until the ninth inning, when he would walk the leadoff batter and allow a single, leading to his being replaced. His inherited runner on second would come around to score, leading to an earned run allowed.
He has only allowed four runs in his 10 bullpen appearances this year, leading to a 1.57 ERA over 23.0 innings of relief.
R-junior Caden Gaudette made his team-leading 18^th appearance of the season in the ninth inning (tied for the most appearances with senior Brett Barfield).
He would get the first out of the ninth inning with a sacrifice bunt, before the game-tying run came in to score off weak contact with the runner scoring from third before the throw could be made to the plate.
He would end up getting the loss after a fly ball was called fair in the 10^th inning resulting in a two-out three-run home run. It was his first loss of the season, dropping his record to 4-1 for the season.

Up Next

The Jackets will look to even the series with Xavier tomorrow at 3 pm. GT will start r-junior Carson Ballard against Xavier’s Eli Bridenthal. The game will be streamed live on ACCNX and tickets can be purchased HERE

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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