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March 6, 2003
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech, the nation’s top-ranked team according to Baseball America, concludes it eight game homestand when the Yellow Jackets host Rutgers for a three-game series this weekend at Russ Chandler Stadium. The series begins on Friday at 4 p.m., and continues on Saturday at 12 noon and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
Live statistics for all three games of the series will be available on the internet at www.ramblinwreck.com.
GEORGIA TECH UPDATE (11-0, 0-0 ACC)
Georgia Tech is off to a 11-0 start, winning six straight games away from home before winning its last five games at Russ Chandler Stadium. Tech’s 11-0 start is the second best mark to open a season. The Yellow Jackets set a school record with a 16-0 start in 1987.
Tech’s early success is largely due to the fantastic performances of its pitching staff. The unit has posted a 2.00 ERA in 11 games, and is holding its opponents to a .200 batting average. LHP Kyle Bakker (3-0, 2.00) is the ace of the Tech staff, while the bullpen has combined for a 1.76 ERA in 41 innings, holding opposing hitters to a .196 batting average. Tech pitchers have walked just 27 batters in 99 innings of work (2.45 walks per nine innings).
Senior RHP Chris Goodman (1-0, 3.00) has opened the season as Tech’s No. 2 starter while freshman RHP Jason Neighborgall (2-0, 1.00) will make his second straight start as Tech’s No. 3 starter on Sunday against Rutgers.
Offensively, the Yellow Jackets have hit just .263 as a team through the first three weeks of the season but they are averaging 7.8 runs per game largely due to timely hitting and 18 home runs in 11 games (averaging 1.64 per game after hitting 0.97 home runs per game in 2002). The team has been led by 1B Clifton Remole (.500-0-7), DH/1B Micah Owings (.321-4-8) and SS Tyler Greene (.297-4-13). Owings, Greene and CF Brandon Boggs have combined to hit 12 of Tech’s 18 home runs this season.
RUTGERS UPDATE (1-4, 0-0 BIG EAST)
Rutgers is 1-4 in five games away from home in 2003, dropping a pair of games at Old Dominion in the opening week of the season and falling twice in three games last weekend in Tennessee. The Scarlet Knights are batting .239 as a team and own a team ERA of 4.14. Sophomore RHP Jack Egbert (0-1, 3.65) is expected to start on Friday, followed by junior LHP Shaun Parker (0-0, 5.91) on Saturday and sophomore RHP Tom Malifronte (1-0, 1.29) on Sunday.
GEORGIA TECH VS. RUTGERS
Georgia Tech Leads, 20-7
Georgia Tech leads Rutgers, 20-7, in a series that dates to 1988. All 27 games in the series have been played at Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta.
The two schools last met during the 2001 season when the Scarlet Knights visited Atlanta for a three-game series. The Yellow Jackets won 2-1 on Friday in a 10-inning pitchers’ duel between Tech’s Steve Kelly and Rutgers’ Bobby Brownlie (all three runs in that game were unearned). The Scarlet Knights rebounded with a 10-9 win on Saturday before Tech won the rubber match on Sunday, 13-1.
Rutgers has made nine trips to Atlanta for three-game weekend series, and the Yellow Jackets have swept three of those nine series. The Scarlet Knights’ lone series win came in 1988 when they took two of three games from the Yellow Jackets.
Georgia Tech is 9-3 against Rutgers under head coach Danny Hall.
STARTING PITCHER NOTES
Friday: KYLE BAKKER (LHP) 3-0, 2.00 ERA
Junior Kyle Bakker will start on Friday in the first game of the Rutgers series, and he will be making his fourth start of the season and the 28th start of his collegiate career.
Bakker is 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA in 2003 after earning wins over Georgia Southern, Rider and George Washington in his first three starts of the season. For his career, Bakker stands at 20-3 with a 2.95 ERA in 198 innings pitched. Bakker currently ranks as the top command pitcher in school history, allowing just 1.68 walks per nine innings.
Bakker enters Friday’s game having won seven consecutive decisions, and he has not suffered a defeat since April 26, 2002 against Virginia.
A preseason All-America in 2003, Bakker earned second team All-America honors in 2002 after earning Freshman All-America honors in 2001. The 6-9 lefty spent the summer of 2002 with the USA Baseball National team, and he posted a 3-2 record and a 2.14 ERA in six starts.
Saturday: CHRIS GOODMAN (RHP) 1-0, 3.00 ERA
Senior Chris Goodman will get the ball in game two of the weekend series against George Washington. Goodman will be making his fourth start of the 2003 season and the 17th start of his Georgia Tech career.
Goodman is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA this spring, earning no decision in each of his first two starts against Georgia Southern and Michigan before picking up his first win of the season last weekend against George Washington. Opponents are batting .237 against him in 2003.
The 6-0 right hander ended the 2002 season as Tech’s No. 2 starter, and he posted an 8-2 record and a 4.41 ERA in 81.2 innings of work. For his career, Goodman is 9-2 with a 4.19 ERA in 96.2 innings, and he has allowed just 2.05 walks per nine innings.
A transfer from NC State following the 2000 season, Goodman made the successful conversion from shortstop to pitcher last season. Goodman pitched one inning of relief in the series at Georgia Southern last year, allowing two runs on three hits in his collegiate pitching debut.
Goodman spent the summer of 2002 with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox of the Cape Cod League, posting a 2.61 ERA in 20.2 innings of work.
Sunday: JASON NEIGHBORGALL (RHP) 2-0, 1.00 ERA
Highly heralded freshman Jason Neighborgall will get the starting nod for the series finale against Rutgers on Sunday afternoon. Neighborgall is coming off victory in a start last Sunday against George Washington where he allowed one run on four hits in five innings of work.
Neighborgall made his collegiate debut and first career start on Feb. 19 at Mercer where he worked three shutout innings. He made his second appearance of the season on Feb. 23 in Savannah, recording a 1-2-3 inning in relief on just six pitches.
The hard-throwing right hander, who has been clocked at or over 100 MPH on several occasions, regularly throws in the mid to upper 90’s. Touted as one of the top high school pitchers in the country last season, Neighborgall was a seventh-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2002 but elected to enroll in Georgia Tech instead.
PITCHING SHINES IN EARLY GAMES, HITTING CONTINUES TO STRUGGLE
Georgia Tech’s 11-0 start to the 2003 season is due largely to the success of the Yellow Jacket pitching staff. The unit, which has seen 12 different players take the mound thus far, has combined for a 2.00 ERA in 99 innings. Tech pitchers are holding opponents to a .200 batting average. More impressively, the staff has walked just 27 batters in 11 games, holding opponents to a .274 on base percentage. The Tech bullpen has been especially effective through the first three weeks of the season, posting a 1.76 ERA in 41 innings.
However as impressive as the pitching staff has been, the Tech offense has sputtered to start the 2003 season. The Yellow Jackets are batting just .263 as a team, a low number considering they hit .330 in 2002, .347 in 2001 and .342 in 2000. In fact, Tech has never hit lower than .306 as a team since Danny Hall became the school’s head coach in 1994, and the Yellow Jackets have hit better than .320 as a team in seven of his nine years at the helm of the program.
HOME, SWEET HOME
Georgia Tech has had great success at home in the history of Russ Chandler Stadium, winning better than 80% of its home games since the facility first opened in 1985. The Yellow Jackets are 5-0 at home in 2003.
Tech has been especially formidable at Russ Chandler Stadium over the last two seasons since the facility was torn down and rebuilt at a cost of $9.7 million. The Yellow Jackets won their first 22 games in their new ballpark in 2002, and Tech is 41-4 (.911) in the new Russ Chandler Stadium.
The Yellow Jackets are on a current 10-game home winning streak dating back to last season.
SECOND BEST START IN SCHOOL HISTORY
Georgia Tech’s 11-0 record to open 2003 stands as the second best mark to open a season in school history. The Yellow Jackets set a school record with a 16-game winning streak to open the 1987 season. Listed below are Tech’s best records to open a season:
BEST STARTS TO OPEN A SEASONYear Start Final Record1987 16-0 51-142003 11-0 ???1985 11-0 42-19-11946 10-0 10-2
LONGEST WINNING STREAKS
Georgia Tech’s current 11-game winning streak is tied for the 13th longest streak in school history, and it is the 25th winning streak in school history of 10 or more games. Listed below are Georgia Tech’s all-time longest winning streaks:
LONGEST GEORGIA TECH WINNING STREAKSYear Streak Final Record1990 20 games 46-251992 18 games 45-191987 16 games 51-142000 15 games 50-161999 14 games 38-202002 13 games 52-161997 13 games 46-151995 13 games 38-221983 12 games 38-151973 12 games 20-6-21971 12 games 31-61906 12 games 23-32003 11 games ???
HALL TOPS 400 WINS AT TECH
Head coach Danny Hall won his 400th game at Georgia Tech on Feb. 21 against Rider. The Tech skipper, now in his 10th year at Georgia Tech, becomes the second coach in school history to reach the 400-victory plateau. Jim Morris won 504 games from 1982-93 to rank as the winningest coach in school history. Hall’s winning percentage of .703 (407-172) is currently the best in school history behind Morris’ mark of .674 (504-244-1).
In 17 years as a head coach at Kent State and Georgia Tech, Hall’s career record currently stands at 615-289 (.680).
VERSUS THE STATE OF GEORGIA
Georgia Tech is 4-0 against teams from the state of Georgia in 2003, and Tech posted a 13-1 mark against its in-state rivals during the 2002 season. Tech is 2-0 against Georgia Southern and 1-0 against both Mercer and Armstrong Atlantic State this year.
Since 1999, Georgia Tech owns a 46-8 (.852) record against its in-state foes. The Yellow Jackets are 88-25 (.779) against teams from Georgia in 10 years under head coach Danny Hall.
PATTERSON CLIMBS TECH STOLEN BASE CHARTS
Sophomore second baseman Eric Patterson has stolen seven bases this season, raising his career total to 48 steals in 78 career games. Patterson’s 48 stolen bases already ranks 10th in Tech history, and he can climb into the school’s all-time top five with just 18 more stolen bases. Ty Griffin (1986-88) holds the school record with 127 stolen bases.
Patterson’s 41 steals as a freshman in 2002 was the second highest single season total in school history.
