Tech heads to Oxford on their first stop to Omaha
Georgia Tech Baseball begins their road to Omaha this weekend at the Oxford Regional, where they’re grouped with Ole Miss, Western Kentucky, and Murray State. Tech comes in as the #2 seed, just barely missing out on a hosting slot after losing to Clemson in the ACC Tournament semifinals. Tech became the first ever ACC regular season champion to not host an NCAA Tournament regional since the format began in 1999.
The regional is a double-elimination format, with the winner moving on to a best-of-3 super regional.
Tech’s first game on Friday will be against #3 seed Western Kentucky, who qualified as the Conference USA champion. A win will likely put them up against #1 seed Ole Miss in the winners bracket, although Ole Miss’ first game against Murray State is about as hard of a 1v4 game in the entire tournament. Murray State is ranked 36th in our Universal Selection Index and finished 55th in DSR.
To get a sense of what it will take for Tech to pull off the win, we went back to our friend Ben King to give us his thoughts:
From The Rumble Seat: We won’t call it a team of destiny, but it feels like a team of something that has what it takes to make life difficult for anyone they play. What’s your vibe check of the team right now?
Ben King: When these guys are clicking, they can play with and beat anyone in the country. The lineup is dangerous one through nine. Getting Kent Schmidt and Kyle Lodise back for the last month or so has been huge and honestly why I think the team has been able to get back on track. The Four Horsemen (McKee, Patel, Paden, Jones) have carried the pitching staff and I feel good about our chances to win a game anytime we have one of those guys on the mound.
I really liked the team’s response on the selection show to being named a 2 seed. They have had a tremendous season and deserved to host a regional, and they are very rightfully frustrated to be the first ACC regular season champion to not host a regional. I think the combination of this being Coach Hall’s last ride along with the motivation from that disrespect will have these guys playing with their hair on fire this postseason.
FTRS: Between McKee/Patel/Paden/Jones, that’s four guys eating A LOT of innings, and doing it well. In the regional format like this, how do you manage the balance of using/preserving arms given it can be life or death depending on the game?
BK: Conquest, War, Famine, Death. You’d hate to be an opposing team with those four guys on the mound. To me, they are the reason that this team has had the type of season that they have. The lineup has obviously been great, but Georgia Tech always rakes. Having four guys that we can trust to cover any game situation has been huge. For this team to advance out of this regional, the Horsemen are going to need to ride (probably more than once each). I think we are also going to need at least one more pitcher to step up and make a big impact this weekend. Both Caden Spivey and Riley Stanford have shown flashes of being effective this season but have pitched sparsely over the second half due to injuries. They are both available this weekend, and I am looking to them to help cover any leftover innings if the Horsemen run out of steam.
FTRS: Omaha?
BK: The best thing about post-season baseball is that anything can happen this time of year. Five wins stand between this team and the promised land of Omaha. At this point, it’s time to just sit back and cheer these guys on. There is so much random variance that can occur in a baseball game and just one or two pitches can make or break a season. Let’s just hope those breaks go our way and Coach Hall gets to ride off into the sunset in storybook fashion. We certainly have the pieces to do it!
Oxford Regional schedule (all times Eastern):
Game 1: #2 Georgia Tech vs. #3 Western Kentucky: Friday, May 30, 4pm
Game 2: #1 Ole Miss vs. #4 Murray State: Friday, May 30, 8pm
Game 3: Loser Game 1. vs. Loser Game 2: Saturday, May 31, 2pm (elimination game)
Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2: Saturday, May 31, 6pm
Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4: Sunday, June 1, 3pm (elimination game)
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5: Sunday, June 1, 7pm (elimination game)
Game 7 (if necessary): Monday, June 2, time TBD