Fortunately, that title is not a veiled reference to the Pack9’s recent fortunes on the diamond. Nope, that is only a reference to the fact that this weekend the Pack will take its only southbound conference road trip of the year. Hopefully the warmer weather will help awaken the bats a bit (though with rain and a mild chill in the forecast for Friday in ATL, it might not happen until Saturday…more on that below).
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The Pack is currently riding an 11 game win streak and has won 13 of 14 since Charlottesville. They’ve won three conference series in a row, including sweeps the past two weekends (vs VT, @ BC).
In so doing, State has improved its record to 29-10 (11-7 ACC) and has begun to climb once again in the national rankings. The Pack is ranked #15 this week. Sadly however, BC is so bad that sweeping them on the road actually brought last week’s RPI of #11 down to #20.
Sweeping BC did allow the Wolfpack to avoid losing ground in the race for the Atlantic Division crown, however.
FSU (13-5) is still out in front after sweeping Duke at home last weekend, including a doubleheader sweep on Saturday. Clemson (12-6), which swept Wake at home last weekend, is still just a game behind the ‘Noles with the Pack (11-7) still 2 games off the pace. Maryland (5-13, 8gb) and Wake (4-14, 9gb) have each fallen out of the race for all intents and purposes.
And BC (0-17) is still BC.
That being said however, BC travels to Wake this weekend. Not only might they have a decent shot at finally breaking into the win column, but proceeds from all ticket sales will be donated to The One Fund Boston, a fund established to help the victims (and their families) of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing.
Pretty classy from our Deacon friends in Winston-Salem. And with the Wolfpack on the road this weekend, a nice little trip to Winston wouldn’t be a bad way to spend Saturday or Sunday. Think about it.
So, with that out of the way, let’s talk Georgia Tech….
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Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
27-10 (11-7, 3rd ACC Coastal; Rank #14, RPI #17)
2012: 37-24 (12-18, 4th ACC Coastal; ACC Tournament Champions)
Make no mistake, Tech is good. Probably not UVa or FSU good, and definitely not UNC-CH good. But they’re good. They’re excellent offensively and defensively, and they have enough pitching to be a factor in any game they play. State will have its work cut out this weekend to get out of Atlanta with a fourth straight series win in conference.
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At The Plate
The Pack’s pitching has been pretty good of late, and it will need to continue to be as Georgia Tech hits very, very well both for average and power.
The Jackets check in with a team batting avg. of .321. That’s tops in the ACC and #6 nationally, by the way. They’re #2 in the league in hits (#10 nationally), they score 7.49 runs per game (2nd, 12th), have jacked 35 round trippers on the year (1st, t8th), and have a team slugging pct. of .481 (1st, 3rd).
They do also draw a lot of walks (170 total/4.6 per game), though probably not as many as they should given their potent offense (5th , t26th), and they do also tend strike out a lot (257 total/6.95 per game; 3rd/2nd most ACC).
They can steal a base if they have to (47 on the year, 7th ACC)…but they generally don’t have to.
Brandon Thomas (#6, Sr, CF/DH) leads the Jackets in avg. at .402. He generally won’t hit for power (1 HR) but he is tied for the team lead with 11 doubles on the year and he’s 3rd on the team with 33 runs scored.
Kyle Wren (#8, Jr, LF/CF) leads GT in total hits (60) and is 2nd in avg. (.387). He’s also Tech’s biggest base stealing threat with 18 steals on 28 attempts.
Daniel Palka (#32, Jr, 1B/OF/LHP) bats .378, is tied for team lead with 11 HRs on the year, and is 2nd in RBIs (42). He’s also 2nd on the team in doubles (10), which combined with his HR numbers gives him the team lead both in total bases (94) and slg% (.696).
Zane Evans (#10, Jr, C) leads Tech with 44 RBIs on the year and is tied for team lead with Palka with 11 HRs. He too has a very healthy slg% (.657, 2nd), and is the only everyday guy for GT who manages to walk more often than strike out (25/17).
Matt Gonzalez (#14, Frosh, SS/3B) bats .340 with 2 HR, 31 RBIs (3rd) and is a more than decent base stealing threat (9/12).
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In The Field
With a team ERA of 3.58 and an against avg. of .239 (7th/5th ACC), GT’s pitching staff is solid but not spectacular (for comparison, the Pack checks in at 3.35 and .212 respectively, 5th/2nd). That being said, they do have an ACC pitcher of the year candidate in Senior righthander Buck Farmer, who Wolfpack batters will be facing in game one.
His stats, as well as those of the other starters the Pack will go up against this weekend….
Buck Farmer (#30, Sr, RHP) – 7-1, 1.41 ERA, 64.0 IP, 1 HR, .211 against avg., 74 Ks, 14 BBs
Dusty Isaacs (#28, Jr, RHP) – 4-3, 4.20 ERA, 49.1 IP, 5 HR, .239 against avg., 43 Ks, 14 BBs
Cole Pitts (#36, Soph, RHP) – 5-3, 3.42 ERA, 50.0 IP, 3 HR, .227 against avg., 32 Ks, 18 BBs
Georgia Tech is also a very good defensive team with a team fldpct of .978, good enough for tops in the ACC and #11 nationally.
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Links
No. 15 Wolfpack Travels to No. 14 Georgia Tech (GoPack.com)
Georgia Tech Baseball Home (RamblinWreck.com)
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Games Schedule – Pitching Probables
- 4/19 Friday 3pm – Ryan Wilkins vs Buck Farmer
- 4/20 Saturday 6pm – Carlos Rodon vs Dusty Isaacs
- 4/21 Sunday 1pm – Brad Stone vs Cole Pitts
***All three games are scheduled to stream live over ESPN3.***
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So…why is Carlos Rodon not getting the Friday start this weekend you ask? Well, I’m only speculating here, but my guess is the weather forecast. Friday’s weather is looking very wet in Atlanta with temps in the 50s by game time.
It’s questionable whether Friday’s game gets played Friday at all, but even if it does it very well might be delayed and quite chilly by the time they do get it in. Delays and chilly temps have not proven to be Carlos’ friend thus far in 2013. Better he expects not to go until Saturday from the outset.
Hopefully sunshine and warmer temps forecast for the rest of the weekend will be more to his liking, as well as that of the Pack’s batting order.
Also, heading south and getting some warmer climatological surroundings often helps with the overall outlook of spring springing and all which that implies. In other words, heading south sometimes has additional benefits…
(You can click on her to see her better, btw 🙂 )
We like it…Ramblin’ Wreck, indeed 😀
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Standings
| (As Of April 18) | ||||
| ATLANTIC DIVISION | ||||
| School | Conference | Pct. | Overall | Pct. |
| Florida State | 13-5 | .722 | 31-6-0 | .838 |
| Clemson | 12-6 | .667 | 26-11-0 | .703 |
| NC State | 11-7 | .611 | 29-10-0 | .744 |
| Maryland | 5-13 | .278 | 20-18-0 | .526 |
| Wake Forest | 4-14 | .222 | 20-20-0 | .500 |
| Boston College | 0-17 | .000 | 6-30-0 | .167 |
| COASTAL DIVISION | ||||
| School | Conference | Pct. | Overall | Pct. |
| North Carolina | 15-2 | .882 | 36-2-0 | .947 |
| Virginia | 13-5 | .722 | 32-6-0 | .842 |
| Georgia Tech | 11-7 | .611 | 27-10-0 | .730 |
| Miami | 8-10 | .444 | 25-15-0 | .625 |
| Duke | 8-10 | .444 | 22-17-0 | .564 |
| Virginia Tech | 7-11 | .389 | 22-16-0 | .579 |
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ACC Baseball This Weekend
- BC @ Wake
- FSU @ UVa
- VT @ UMd
- Clemson @ Miami
- Duke @ UNC-CH
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