NASHVILLE REGIONAL: A closer look at Georgia Tech

Here’s a look at Georgia Tech as it enters the 2021 Nashville Regional.

2021 record/RPI: 29-23 (46)

Coach: Danny Hall (1,310-696 1, 28th year at GT)

Rank in polls: NR

Rank in conference: 1st, Atlantic Coast Conference, Coastal Division (21-15)

Last NCAA tournament appearance: 2019 (lost in regional final to Auburn)

The last time a full season of baseball was played, Georgia Tech had what felt like all the momentum going into the postseason. They won the Coastal Division, were runners up in the conference tournament, and were the No. 3 national seed.

Nobody knew at the time that the regional final matchup, a loss to Auburn, would be the last post-season baseball for guys like Jonathan Hughes, Baron Radcliff, and Michael Guldberg. That’s exactly what turned out to be the case, after COVID-19 ended the 2020 season in March, and those three names each were called at the 2020 MLB Draft last summer.

The differences between the two teams are sharp. The only remaining contributors from that team are Luke Waddell, Austin Wilhite, Luke Bartnicki, and Brant Hurter.

The injury bug hasn’t been overly kind to the Yellow Jackets, either. Injuries delayed the debut of freshman P Marquis Grissom Jr., ended the season early for key RP Jackson Finley, and forced OF Colin Hall to miss all but 17 games this season. While he has been able to pitch at times this season, P Cort Roedig still looks to be a shell of the player he once was prior to his injury.

Despite the injuries, Georgia Tech was able to win the Coastal Division title, and becomes the first to win the division title and not host a regional. The Jackets peaked as a top ten team in the polls before a mid-season funk saw them reach all the way to a bubble team before stabilizing.

This team has a little bit of everything: Potentially elite starting pitching at the top, power bats in a lineup that also has some depth to it, and a hard-throwing back end of the bullpen. The team also struggled at times to throw strikes, had the bats all go quiet at the same time, and wasn’t the cleanest in the field of play this season.

Despite the amount of youth in this Georgia Tech lineup, the bats were depended on time and time again throughout this season.

The team at one point was on pace for a record amount of home runs before cooling off around the mid-point of the season. In fact, the team actually gave up more total HR (62) than they had themselves (61) when all was said and done.

The two leaders statistically in this lineup, 3B Justyn-Henry Malloy and C Kevin Parada, were both new to the team in 2020-21. Parada started out the season on fire, and at one point was batting well over .400 and catching the eyes of many nationally. Had the MLB Draft not been condensed to just five rounds in 2020, there is no way fans would have ever gotten to see Kevin Parada in blue and gold.

Newcomer 3B Justyn-Henry Malloy, a Vanderbilt transfer ironically, ended the season with the most HR and RBI, while batting just over .300 for the season. Nobody could have seen that coming, especially if they had listened to the pre-season messages from Coach Danny Hall.

During the off-season, it was thought that there were two big battles in the lineup that may take time to sort themselves out: C and 3B.

The opening day catcher, Jake Holland, finished the season batting .158 with just 6 RBI. He appeared in just a total of 15 games. Holland is part of a thin bench going into the series, and could be thrust into action were anything to happen with Kevin Parada.

The back of the Georgia Tech rotation doesn’t exactly look the way it did early on in the season. After missing much of the season due to injury, Marquis Grissom Jr. quickly found himself in a big spot as the No. 3 starter. A spot once claimed by lefty Sam Crawford, Grissom Jr. has been extremely effective, albeit in short bursts.

His best start of the season came against Miami, where he threw five solid innings of one-run ball to go along with 4 K and 2 BB. The stuff is there, but the consistency is not yet, which is why it will be interesting to see how Hall opts to use him in this Regional.

Lefty Brant Hurter flashed ace stuff early on in his career, and after missing quite a bit of time due to an injury, he has been the ace pitching coach Danny Borrell has needed. He can be a little wild at times (11 WP, 13 HBP) but has the lowest ERA among all starters on the team.

The bullpen hasn’t been as consistent as Danny Hall would like, and part of that is the season-ending injury to righty Jackson Finley, who was on his way to becoming the closer had he not been injured.

Speaking of the closer role, that’s been a sore spot for the GT team this season. Bartnicki started the season as the closer, and has flirted with getting his job back at times, but his opponents’ batting average of .291, combined with untimely walks and his tendency to pitch to contact has led to issues in close games.

Zach Maxwell stepped into the closer role and filled in rather well. With a frame that profiles typically on the football field, Maxwell has been able to maximize every pitch, nearing 100 MPH on several occasions.

This team will go as far as their bullpen takes them. The rotation is solid, starting at the top with Hurter, but the command of the strike zone will be the determining factor in Nashville?

It may sound simple. Throw strikes, don’t walk too many batters, and give your infielders a chance.

For Georgia Tech, it hasn’t always been that way.