April 30, 2018
Collegiate Baseball Official Release | Perfect Game Official Release
TUCSON, Ariz. – Georgia Tech sophomore pitcher Connor Thomas was one of eight players recognized by Collegiate Baseball as a National Player of the Week on Monday for games played April 23-29. He was then named the Perfect Game/Rawlings National Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday, May 1.
In his Saturday start versus Wake Forest, Thomas struck out a career-high 17 batters in a 5-1 complete-game win over the Demon Deacons. The 17 strikeouts are the most by a Tech pitcher in a single game since current Detroit Tigers’ pitcher and former Jacket Buck Farmer struck out 14 batters versus Akron on Feb. 15, 2013. His 17 strikeouts were also only two shy of the school record of 19 punch outs set by Jerry Bass versus Earlham in 1975.
Thomas’ 17 strikeouts is also tied for the most-ever by an individual pitcher against Wake Forest all-time, which has happened three times overall, most recently in 1989.
The complete-game win, in which Thomas allowed one run on four hits and one walk, was his second of the season. The last GT pitcher to record multiple complete games in the same year was also Farmer with two 9.0-inning contests back in 2013.
The sophomore hurler was dominant from start to finish, as he posted six 1-2-3 innings, did not have a fly ball out for the entire game and went to a three-ball count only once against the total 32 batters he faced, waling the hitter in the top of the ninth inning. The second-year Jacket struck out seven different Wake Forest hitters, four of which struck out three times each on the day.
Starting pitchers Xzavion Curry and Thomas posted back-to-back complete-game wins on Friday and Saturday nights, becoming the first Jackets to record back-to-back complete games since 2001 when Matt Lorenzo and Steve Kelly threw two-straight complete games on Feb. 28 and March 2.
Thomas’ performance also earned him a nomination for USA Baseball’s Golden Spikes Award Performance of the Week award. Fans can vote for Thomas on the @USAGoldenSpikes Twitter account today!
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