Yellow Jackets Stung By The Tar Heels

It may have been the sunny skies and 63 degree weather. Or perhaps it was momentum carrying over from the previous day’s extra inning win. Who knows? One thing that was obvious is the Georgia Tech Baseball team came ready to play early.

After coming away unscathed following an error in the first inning, the Yellow Jackets engineered an offensive explosion of sorts scoring three runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning. It began with sophomore Joey Bart delivering a double and driving in a run. It was capped off by a right field blast out the park by Kyle McCann to give the Jackets a commanding 3-0 lead.

Starting pitcher Jay Shadday continued to dampen the North Carolina parade by recording a career high four strikeouts and only two hits midway through the 4th inning for his first start of the year.

In the bottom of the 4th inning the onslaught continued when Trevor Craport singled to bring home Wade Bailey making the score 4-0.

This lead would be short lived however when the Jackets went to their bullpen in the top of the 6th inning. Micah Carpenter didn’t have his best stuff as he immediately gave up a triple followed by a two-run home run to center field. He was replaced by Burton Delaney, the right hand sophomore from Rome Georgia.

Delaney didn’t fare much better as he hit the first batter he faced and walked the next. After giving up another run narrowing the Jackets lead to 4-3, coach Danny Hall elected to bring in freshman lefty Nick Wilhite. He could not stop the bleeding. Finally reliever Jake Lee, with bases loaded would get Tech out the inning but not after seeing their once four run lead squandered.

In the bottom of the 7th, senior pitcher Zac Ryan entered the game having pitched the previous two games in a row. An error by 3rd baseman Trevor Craport led to a North Carolina run and tied the game at four apiece. Craport bobbled a grounder and the runner on third scored.  The Tar Heels took a one run lead.

A routine pop up to shallow right by Wade Bailey should have ended the inning for the Jackets in the top of the 8th however a costly error by Tarheel’s Zach Gahagan kept the door open. A walk would make the inning even more interesting as Georgia Tech threatened to score but a pop up by Joey Bart would end the inning with Georgia Tech trailing 5 – 4.

Two more errors by Trevor Craport in the final inning would contribute to the Tarheels taking a 7-4 lead which they would not relinquish. Despite getting runners on first and second in the ninth with no outs, there would be no late game heroics like the previous game as the Yellow Jackets dropped their fourth game in the Coastal Conference.