Tech's offense explodes late for 16-10 win in ACC Quarterfinals

CHARLOTTE –For most of the season, it hasn’t been a matter of if Georgia Tech’s bats will get going in games, it’s been a matter of when.

On Thursday in the ACC Tournament Quarterfinals vs Virginia, Tech’s offense was a little late but right on time as the Jackets’ erupted for 11 runs in the seventh and eight innings to turn the game around in a big way in a 16-10 victory to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.

The tournament’s top seed Georgia Tech (46-9) went to the bottom of the seventh trailing the No. 8 seed Cavaliers 9-5, but the Jackets’ lineup put together a game-changing seven-run rally with the big blow coming on Parker Brosius two-out, grand slam to put his team ahead 11-9. Carson Kerce’s solo shot made it 12-9.

“A guy like Parker Brosius deserves so much credit for all he’s done,” said Georgia Tech head coach James Ramsey. “He stuck it out. He’s never wavered. He got his degree. He’s been a role player that I even look myself in the mirror, you put handcuffs sometimes early in a career on a guy that can run, he can bunt, he can do things. He’s really risk averse as a coach to put in the nine hole. He plays great defense, and all of a sudden after a trajectory of losing everyday at-bats over his sophomore and junior year as an everyday player comes in and is kind of platooning, having to earn his way in or his way out. What he’s done down the stretch is the stuff that championships are built on and so when he comes to the plate after Alex Hernandez hustling to beat out a potential double play. Will Baker has a two-out walk, isn’t rattled by big moments and borderline calls that go one way or the other. We teach our guys never to panic, and they can control only what they can control. To have Parker step up and hit a two-strike home run, grand slam like that, it’s everything this team is built on.”

Tech then added four more runs in the eighth for insurance on a pair of two-run homers, coming from Vahn Lackey and Kent Schmidt, before closing the game with a scoreless ninth by Justin Shadek.

Eight different Tech batters combined for 14 total hits, including three multi-hit days led by three-hit efforts from Kerce and Kent Schmidt. Kerce had two homers and four RBIs in the win while Schmidt finished 3-for-4 with his homer, three RBIs and two runs scored.

“This is the time of year we’re always going to play a quality opponent. So I think it’s a good measuring stick for your teams,” said Ramsey. “You know you never like to have your heart rate where it’s sitting at 11 o’clock start in the fifth inning and you’re down and you’re sitting there hind-sighting yourself on every single process question you’ve had, but when you have a group like this that’s super resilient…I mean you go up and down. It’s the things we preach though that it’s going to happen, right? It’s you’re down 10 runs against Wake Forest in the second inning, it’s going to happen. You’re down against quality arms and you give up leads late or whatever it is, we had nine outs left on the board and Drew Burress comes in, we meet as a team and he just steps up and he doesn’t do that a ton but that’s why he’s got the ‘C’ on his chest. He’s learned the tools of being a leader and giving a speech because if you have a guy like Vahn Lackey leading off the inning, he probably makes your speech pretty good.”

Brosius added his grand slam and finished the day with five total RBIs, and Lackey had a pair of homers, three RBIs and three runs scored. Ryan Zuckerman also had two hits and scored two runs.

Jarren Advincula and Drew Burress each had a double with Advincula scoring two runs, and Alex Hernandez added a hit, an RBI and two runs scored. Will Baker rounded out the offensive efforts with two walks and two runs scored.

Mason Patel (4-0) earned the win thanks to three innings of key relief as he allowed four runs on five hits with three walks but limited damage multiple times during his stint on the mound. Shadek followed with a scoreless ninth as he allowed one hit.

Tate McKee was off to a strong start on the mound for Tech, firing three scoreless innings to start the game, but had to come out in the top of the fourth with no outs as he was dealing with an apparent blister or cut issue on his right hand. His final line in the no decision was three innings, one run allowed, three hits, six strikeouts and two walks. Ramsey said after the game that it wasn’t worth the risk of making it worse with a regional ahead next weekend.

Dylan Loy and Brett Barfield bridged the innings between McKee and Patel with Loy going one inning and allowing four runs on three hits with two strikeouts and one walk and Barfield going one inning and allowing one run on two hits with three strikeouts.

The game was back and forth in the middle innings with Tech leading 1-0, then Virginia (36-22) leading 2-1, then Tech leading 4-2, then Virginia leading 6-4 and eventually Virginia taking that 9-5 lead to the bottom of the seventh before the Jackets’ late offensive surge.

Max Stammel (3-5) took the loss for the Cavaliers as he went 1 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and gave up five runs on three hits with two strikeouts and two walks. He was one of seven Virginia pitchers used in the loss with only one, Noah Yoder, not allowing a run, and that was in 1/3 of an inning of work.

John Paone got the start for UVA and went 3 2/3 innings while allowing four runs on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks in a no decision.

The Cavaliers’ lineup was led by Joe Tiroly and Antonio Perrotta who each finished with three hits, including a two-run homer apiece. Perrotta had a double, and Tiroly also drove in a run later on a bases-loaded walk.

Harrison Didawick launched a two-run homer as well as part of a two-hit day that also included a double. Lead-off man Eric Becker contributed three hits, including a double, and AJ Gracia had two hits. Sam Harris and Zach Jackson each drove in a run for the Cavaliers.

Scoring recap…

After both teams had baserunners and scoring chances over the first few innings, it was Georgia Tech that dealt the first offensive blow in the bottom of the third. Carson Kerce drove a ball over the right field wall for a solo homer to make it 1-0 in favor of the Jackets.

Virginia jumped ahead 2-1 in the fourth as Antonio Perrotta launched a two-run homer to right field off of Dylan Loy following McKee’s exit.

Georgia Tech had a nice answer in the bottom of the fourth as the bats struck for three runs, the first coming on an RBI groundout by Parker Brosius followed by a two-out, two-run single by Kerce to make it 4-2.

Virginia quickly evened the game up in the top of the fifth at 4-4 as Joe Tiroly connected for a two-run homer inside the foul pole in left and then went up 6-4 on another two-run homer, this one from Harrison Didawick to center, later in the inning.

Tech got one run back in the fifth as Vahn Lackey sent the first pitch of the inning just under the scoreboard in left center for a solo homer to cut the deficit to 6-5.

The back and forth scoring continued in the top of the sixth as Sam Harris hit a sac fly to right to bring home another Virginia run and increase their lead to 7-5.

The Cavaliers added two runs to their lead in the seventh, both coming with two outs, to make it 9-5. Eric Becker doubled down the first base line to drive in the first, and Tiroly drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in the other.

The big inning that’s become common over the course of this season for Tech’s offense came in the seventh when the Jackets put seven runs on the board to turn the scoreboard around from a four-run deficit to a 12-9 lead. Kent Schmidt started things with an RBI single followed by an RBI groundout by Alex Hernandez to make it 9-7, but the big blow in the frame came off the bat of Brosius who connected for a grand slam on an 0-2 count to give his team the lead. Kerce then made it back-to-back homers with a solo shot as the Tech lead grew to three.

Virginia got a run back in the top of the eighth on a sac fly from Zach Jackson to cut the Tech lead to 12-10.

Georgia Tech added four more insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth on a pair of two-run homers with Lackey going deep for the second time in the contest followed a few batters later by a Schmidt homer launched to right as the lead grew to 16-10.

“Like Ramsey said it’s just we always thought we’re in this game,” said Lackey. “Like, there’s never a point where we’re out of a baseball game so I feel like all our guys, 1 through 9, we’re always thinking one pitch at a time. We’re not really thinking too far in the future. Like we’re down, we’ve been down against Wake Forest by a lot, and we just chip away and chip away, and that’s just who we are. I just feel like we’re talented enough that there’s no, I guess, differential that we can’t come back from, and we just trust ourselves to make it happen.”

Up Next…

Georgia Tech will advance to the semifinals on Saturday at 1 p.m. to take on the Miami. The Hurricanes took down Boston College in Thursday’s second quarterfinal by a score of 8-2.

“As we go forward, we get a day off, we get to rest up a little bit, but super proud up and down the lineup, the guys in the dugout, the fans that showed up today,” said Ramsey. “We’ll play in front of even more on Saturday, and it’s just the next step for us to chase another championship.”