Collegiate Times

Tech baseball faces No. 4 Georgia Tech this weekend.

For the fourth week in a row, the Virginia Tech baseball team will play a weekend series against a Baseball America Top 15 team.

In previous weeks, Tech (26-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) recorded series wins over No. 6 Florida State, No. 14 Miami, and a single win last Sunday against No. 2 Virginia.  

Tech travels to Atlanta this weekend to play the final juggernaut left on its schedule, No. 4 Georgia Tech, and the Hokies will need to hit their best to keep up with the powerful Yellow Jackets.

Georgia Tech (33-5, 15-3 ACC) leads the ACC in nearly every offensive category – including batting average, slugging percentage, RBIs, home runs and total bases. They rank second in on base percentage and runs scored.

At the bottom of the Jackets’ lineup, freshman left fielder Brandon Thomas hits .290 and sophomore second baseman Jacob Esch hits .300, while the rest of the team hits at least .340 or higher, with junior designated hitter Thomas Nichols leading the team at .421.

In addition to hitting for average, Georgia Tech hits for power and lots of it. They have cranked 85 home runs this season, 24 more than North Carolina State, which ranks second in the ACC with 61 on the season.

With the exception of Thomas and Esch, the entire Jackets lineup possesses big time home run power.

Senior first baseman Tony Playman leads Georgia Tech with 14 home runs, junior shortstop Derek Dietrich is close behind with 13, sophomore third baseman Matt Skole has 12, and junior right fielder Chase Burnette has 11. All four currently have more home runs than the Hokies’ biggest power threat, Steve Domecus, who has nine total; Jackets Jeff Rowland and Cole Leonida have eight each, and Nichols has seven as well.  

If the Hokies want to keep up, they will need some production out of junior Austin Wates, who has not been up to his usual standard since being named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association National Hitter of the Week after a breakout series against FSU.

In the last two conference series against Miami and UVa, Wates has been hard pressed for hits, and is only hitting .263 in 23 at-bats with one walk, two runs and five strikeouts. Sitting in the cleanup spot, the Hokies need him to hit, and if he does not, Virginia Tech will have a tough time keeping up with the Jackets’ big bats.

The Hokies have struggled in general the past two weekend series to get runs on the board, but they finally got the bats going in the ninth inning against UVa Sunday, sparking a five-run rally to win the game, 8-5. Prior to that game, the Hokies had been held to just 10 runs in their last four ACC games.

Part of those hitting struggles can be attributed to the excellent pitching Virginia Tech faced against Miami and UVa, but Georgia Tech will come with good arms as well.

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A version of this article appeared in the Apr 23 issue of the Collegiate Times.