Panthers and Jackets Mid-Week Showdown

Russ Chandler Stadium, home of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Who: The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, compete in the D1 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Yellow Jackets enter play on Wednesday with a 5-3 record and are ranked 26th in the nation. Tech has an experienced pitching staff this year. Their 34 player roster is currently made up of 17 freshman and 17 returnees.

Previous Season: Tech advanced to the NCAA Atlanta Regional (playing as host school) and was eliminated by Alabama. They were the #8 National Seed entering the tournament. Last conference championship was in 2005.

Tech on the Mound: Tech will send freshman Matt Grimes to the mound. Matt is 1-0 after 2 appearances including 1 start. His only start on the season was on 2/23 against Georgia Southern where he earned the win after pitching 5.1 innings allowing 4 runs off 5 hits. He walked 1 and struck out 3 in the outing. Matt's other appearance was a 1 inning relief effort where he allowed only 1 hit and no runs. Matt was a 4th round pick by the Chicago White Sox in the 2010 MLB Draft. He exited high school as the 20th-ranked prospect in Georgia after lettering 3 of 4 years at Mill Creek High School. The kid has a very strong arm. The Panthers will need to get to Grimes early and often before the Tech bullpen enters as they are an experienced and solid group, not giving up many runs.

Tech at the Plate: Tech is hitting .312 as a team, currently led by Kyle Wren hitting .484 and Matt Skole hitting .478. Skole is slugging .696 with 1 HR and 8 RBIs through 6 games played. Tech hasn't shown off power or speed yet as they have only 2 HR's as a team and are 6 for 10 in stolen base attempts. Tech is scoring 6 runs per game (lower than State) with 48 on the season. Their offense has been mainly an offense of singles thus far only having 15 doubles and 4 triples.

GSU on the Mound: Veteran Aidan Francis will get the ball to start the game for State. Francis is a senior and is expected to be a leader in the weekend rotation during CAA play. Francis has started in one game this season giving up 4 runs through 4.2 innings pitched at Mercer. Francis did strike out 8 in the outing and he'll need to count on this again in order to keep Tech runners from possibly being moved over to scoring position or to setup a double play situation. Francis gave up 3 HR's in the outing but Mercer has shown to be a power team thus far so I'm not sure this is a concern for the Tech game. This game will be a great test for our relievers who, excluding a bad day for a couple guys, have shown to be almost untouchable. I'm looking forward to seeing Sam Agnew-Wieland and Jake Dyer get a chance to throw in this game.

GSU at the Plate: The Panthers come in batting .276 as a team with senior outfielder Brett Maxwell showing the way at .444 after starting all 8 games. DH Joey Wood and outfielder Mark Micowski lead the way with 7 RBIs each. Bryan Condotta has also hit the ball well posting a .364 batting average with 3 doubles. State has been efficient in moving runners on stolen bases with success in 20 of 23 attempts. The Panthers will need to get better about timely hitting in this game in order to take advantage of men on base as they may not get many opportunities. This offense enters the game with more runs scored than Tech at 55 on the season.

Here are the keys to this game, and they're really not rocket science. The defense needs to play clean. When playing the #26th ranked team in the country, you cannot afford to give them free at-bats with errors. They will take advantage of it and they will make you pay. Aidan Francis needs to continue striking guys out and keep the ball in the park. Tech hasn't been a power team yet so don't give them any hangers to do so with. The offense needs to come in fired up and jump all over Matt Grimes early. He's a freshman so the ability to rattle him and make him force pitches is there. That goes away once the bullpen comes into play. When our offense gets on base they need to steal bases to turn singles into scoring opportunities. The speed is there so use it.

I think we can come away with a win here if the team executes properly and plays a clean game. Tech does have two losses at home so far, against Kent State and St. John's, so they're not unbeatable at Russ Chandler. Go Panthers!!!