Jackets outlast Duke for 10-9 walk-off win in extras

It was quite an opening chapter of the final home ACC series of the regular season on Friday night as Georgia Tech outlasted Duke in a roller-coaster type game to earn a 10-9 victory in 10 innings thanks to a walk-off sacrifice fly by Drew Burress to drive home Carson Kerce in front of a sold-out crowd at Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium.

The Jackets (40-8, 20-5 in ACC) had two separate four-run leads earlier in the game, but Duke (23-26, 9-16 in ACC) refused to go away quietly and battled back into the game and even took a brief lead with a three-run top of the seventh.

But Georgia Tech immediately tied the game up with a solo homer in the bottom half of the inning from Parker Brosius, who was inserted as a pinch hitter earlier in the game, and reliever Mason Patel threw four shutdown innings to keep the Blue Devils off the scoreboard from there and set the table for the drama (and celebration) in the 10th.

“Anytime Friday night you get a win, it’s a big deal,” said Georgia Tech head coach James Ramsey. “I want to shout out the coaching staff, players…just to see the graphic flashed up of the fastest team to get to 40 wins (at Georgia Tech). This program has done a lot of great things, and there’s a lot of tradition we want to honor and then also we’ve kind of unapologetically leaned into doing special things. Couldn’t be more proud of who this group is. The whole team side of things…we talk to our guys about winning in a lot of different ways, and our bullpen’s been outstanding. We have not given up leads, and there was no panic in that dugout.”

Patel (3-0) earned the win thanks to his four innings of shutout relief as he came on in the seventh and finished out the game. He allowed no runs on just two hits with six strikeouts and one walk. He gave up a hit to allow two runs in the seventh, but those were inherited from Caden Gaudette.

“Patel to give up the runs on 3-2 count and then all of a sudden just settles in, wasn’t wavering at all, gave our guys a chance to keep pushing back,” said Ramsey. “Big at-bats by obviously from Kerce and Burress to finish it. But I mean this team…we talked about earlier this week there’s no finish line for us. Like we’re just going to keep playing and keep trying to put our best out there. Hats off to Duke for battling. We need a lot of more games like that down the stretch to just be battle-tested.”

Georgia Tech scored four in the fourth to bust open an 1-1 game and take a 5-1 lead with the big blows in the inning being a two-run homer by Ryan Zuckerman and a solo shot by Kerce.

The Jackets once again pushed the lead to four at 7-3 in the bottom of the fifth, including a solo homer to center by Vahn Lackey.

Duke got a three-run homer of its own from Kaden Smith in the sixth to pull within a run at 7-6, but Tech immediately scored a run in the bottom half to go up 8-6. The Devils took their first lead in the seventh with three runs to go up 9-8 with the biggest hit of the inning being a two-out, two-run single by Collin Anderson.

Brosius hit his game-tying homer in the bottom of the seventh to make it 9-9 and set up the thrilling ending.

“I felt like I hit it pretty well. I was running down the first baseline, and I was like ‘get up, get up, get up,'” said Brosius, who walked across the graduation stage earlier on Friday to officially receive his Georgia Tech degree. “You just never know when it’s going to go and it’s not, but I knew I got it pretty well. It was a pretty great feeling.”

Nine different players had at least one hit for the Jackets in a 15-hit effort for the team led by Jarren Advincula who finished 3-for-5 with a run scored. Burress finished 2-for-5 with a homer and the game-winning sac fly, and Kerce also had two hits, including his solo homer and triple to lead off the 10th to go with two runs scored.

Will Baker added two hits and two runs scored, and Kent Schmidt had a double and an RBI. Alex Hernandez finished with two hits in his return from injury for his first action in two weeks. Lackey, Zuckerman and Brosius added their long balls.

On the mound, Tate McKee got the start and went five innings in a no decision as he allowed six runs (five earned) on seven hits with six strikeouts. Gaudette came on to pitch one inning of relief as he allowed three runs (two earned) on three hits with one strikeout. Patel then followed with his four big innings, and Ramsey said he had no lack of confidence his fifth-year senior could go that long on the mound.

“He’s so efficient. I mean, man like I don’t even know where he ended up…with 53 pitches in four innings,” said Ramsey. “He just makes quick work of things, and he’s a big sweater. Physically, he sweats a ton, but he doesn’t sweat, metaphorically very much out there.”

David Boisvert (0-1) took the loss for Duke after his 1/3 inning of relief as he gave up one run on one hit. The Devils used three pitchers before him, including starter Peter Lemke who went four innings and gave up six runs (five earned) on nine hits with three strikeouts and one walk. Jack Feeherty and Jack Hedrick both pitched in relief with Hedrick going 4 2/3 innings and allowing two runs on four hits with three strikeouts and one walk.

Anderson led the Devils at the plate with a 2-for-4 night that included a homer and three RBIs. Smith also had two hits, including his three-run homer, and RJ Hamilton added two hits, an RBI and two runs scored. Coltin Quagliano was the fourth Duke player with two hits.

Scoring Recap…

Georgia Tech took the initial lead in the bottom of the first on a solo home run by Drew Burress that he crushed off the scoreboard in left center to make it 1-0.

Duke’s Matthew Strand matched the solo homer from Burress with one of his own in the top of the second as he snuck one out over the left-field wall to make it 1-1.

Georgia Tech retook the lead with a four-run bottom of the fourth thanks to a two-run homer to left by Ryan Zuckerman followed by Kent Schmidt coming home to score on a double play and then a solo blast to right by Carson Kerce.

Duke cut into the deficit in the top of the fifth with a solo homer from Collin Anderson and an RBI-groundout a few batters later by Adin Zorn to make it 5-3 Tech.

Jackets immediately answered with two of their own in the bottom of the fifth tie push the lead back to four at 7-3. Vahn Lackey smashed a solo homer off the batter’s eye in center field, and Schmidt drove in the other run with an RBI double to left.

Duke got right back in the game and within a run in the top of the sixth as Kaden Smith connected for a three-run homer to left to make it 7-6 in favor of the Jackets.

Georgia Tech added one run in the sixth as Jarren Advincula came home to score after a single to left by Will Baker was bobbled. That made the lead 8-6 in favor of the home team.

Duke jumped in front with a three-run top of the seventh to make it 9-8. RJ Hamilton drove in the first run of the frame with an RBI single, and Anderson came through with a two-out, two-run single to put his team ahead.

Georgia Tech evened the game in the bottom of the seventh as Parker Brosius connected for an opposite-field solo homer to right-center to make it 9-9.

The Jackets scored the deciding run in the bottom of the 10th as Burress drove home Kerce on a sac fly following a Kerce triple off the center field wall to lead off the inning.

Up Next…

Georgia Tech and Duke will continue their three-game series on Saturday at 3 p.m. back at Russ Chandler Stadium before wrapping things up on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.