The NC State baseball team will open conference play this upcoming weekend, Feb. 26-28, at home against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
After suffering a brutal midweek loss to UNC-Greensboro on Tuesday, the Wolfpack (2-1) is vengeful for redemption and hopeful for a strong start to ACC play this season.
Georgia Tech (3-1) began its season with a home series against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, winning the series but losing the sweep game on Saturday. While the Yellow Jackets outscored the Colonels 25-16 during the weekend, their bats just weren’t powerful enough to overcome a few key defensive errors and a multitude of walks, giving Eastern Kentucky the advantage.
The Yellow Jackets also played their first midweek matchup of 2021 against Mercer on Wednesday, Feb. 24, winning 7-3 and almost securing a shutout if they hadn’t given up three runs in the ninth inning.
This first weekend showed just a glimpse of how successful the Yellow Jacket’s offense can be, especially with the help of infielder Drew Compton. With a .625 batting average in eight at-bats against Eastern Kentucky, Compton not only leads the team in average but is also tied for 14th in the entire NCAA. He finished the weekend with five hits, two home runs and five RBIs with only one strikeout.
Infielder Luke Waddell, infielder Andrew Jenkins and outfielder Stephen Reid are also other names to look out for, rounding out the list of Georgia Tech players with a batting average above .300 after the weekend.
The Yellow Jackets have also been successful on the base path to start the season, successfully completing all five stolen-base attempts over opening weekend.
While the Georgia Tech roster has proved it’s capable of having another great season offensively, there has been a little rust on defense, leading to a total of 10 errors already to begin the year. Combined with inconsistent pitching, including an 11-walk performance on Saturday, this could definitely be a problem for the Yellow Jackets against NC State’s powerful offense.
The Pack has had a similar start to 2021, struggling defensively in its most recent matchup against UNC-Greensboro but showing plenty of signs of having a strong and deep offense.
Names to watch for from the Wolfpack include junior first baseman Austin Murr, who is coming off of a career-best 5 for 6 outing, and junior outfielder Jonny Butler, who has now reached base in his past 23 games, which dates back to 2019. Murr is the first Pack player to have five hits since Andrew Knizner in 2014.
These are must-have wins for the Pack to start a very competitive ACC schedule and bounce back after Tuesday’s loss.
The series will start in Raleigh on Friday, Feb. 26, and the first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. All games will be televised on ACC Network Extra, and @TechSports on Twitter will be providing live updates.
