Tech's bats lead way in blowout win to clinch series vs. Duke

Georgia Tech had to squeak out a walk-off victory in 10 innings on Friday night, but Saturday afternoon’s affair wasn’t quite as competitive as the Jackets broke out the bats in a big way in a 15-2 win over Duke.

The Jackets (41-8, 21-5 in ACC) led 4-1 going to the bottom of the fourth before erupting for nine runs in the inning on the back of three huge homers to bust the game open and never look back in the mercy-rule shortened win. Among the blasts were a three-run homer by Drew Burress, a grand slam by Ryan Zuckerman and a two-run shot by Alex Hernandez.

“Up and down the lineup, another day of quality at-bats,” said Georgia Tech head coach James Ramsey. “I mean you’re looking at Georgia Tech Baseball happening out in front of us. It was situational hitting. It was two strikes. (Vahn) Lackey had a couple big swings that opened it up early, and then the rest is kind of history with it. Burress just doing Burress things. But up and down, it’s great to see Hernandez doing his thing. And off we go to a Sunday where we’ve got to come with energy and go from the jump.”

Tech’s offense finished with 15 runs on nine hits spread across six different batters, which was plenty of support behind a strong outing on the mound by Carson Ballard (6-0), who earned the win after being one of several Jackets’ seniors honored prior to the game as part of Senior Day festivities. Ballard ended up going five innings while allowing just one run on three hits with four strikeouts.

“Carson did a great job. We’re going to continue to trust him,” said Ramsey of Ballard’s effort. “I remember sitting here like five weeks ago talking about how (Justin) Shadek’s going to get chances, (Cooper) Underwood and (Charlie) Willcox and Ballard. And the list kind of goes on with those guys, and Carson’s just earning more opportunities. You look back at the way he faced a great Georgia lineup and did that. He’s just a smart pitcher, and I think he kind of gets underrated sometimes. He has good stuff. I mean, the two-seam, the sinker was running and sinking like crazy today. He has so many of those different pitches that I think it’s frustrating to gameplan against because if the breaking ball’s not working, he’ll just switch it up to right-on-right change-ups.”

Jake Lankie came on in relief for Ballard and pitched one inning as he didn’t allow a run on two hits with one strikeout and one walk. Kayden Campbell, another one of the seniors honored on Saturday, finished things out in the seventh with one inning of work as he gave up one run on one hit with two strikeouts.

Burress finished with two hits, including his homer, to go with three RBIs and three runs scored as he moved one homer shy of tying Jason Varitek for the Georgia Tech all-time record for career homers at 58. Zuckerman drove in five runs on the afternoon as he pushed his team-leading RBI total to 65.

Vahn Lackey and Jarren Advincula each finished with two hits apiece as Lackey drove in two runs and scored two of his own while Advincula crossed the plate four times in the win. Carson Kerce doubled and scored a run as it was his 26th double of the season, one shy of Jay Payton’s program record for a single season.

Aidan Weaver (4-7) took the loss for Duke (23-27, 9-17 in ACC) as he was the first of six pitchers on the day for the Devils. Four of the six allowed at least two runs with the last two, Jordan Regulski and Grayson Walker, combining to two scoreless frames, allowing no hits, walking four and striking out one.

Duke’s offense was limited to six hits on the day with Matthew Strand accounting for three of them. Tyler Albright had a solo homer, and Collin Anderson drove in the other Devils’ run with a sac fly.

Ramsey shows appreciation for his five seniors…

As mentioned above, Ballard, Campbell and four of their teammates (Parker Brosius, Caden Spivey, Caden Gaudette, Brett Barfield) were honored prior to the game for Senior Day as their Georgia Tech career heads down the stretch in 2026. Ramsey said that group has been and is currently part of something special with this program.

“It’s a great weekend of celebrating those guys,” said Ramsey. “There’s so many of them that have impacted us in between the white lines. There’s so many of them that have carried themselves in our program in the highest esteem in the classroom, in the community. People are fans of Georgia Tech Baseball because of what this senior class has done. You have multiple guys two years here, three years here, but it’s those four-year guys that they have a special place in your heart just because you recruit them here to build into something that they had to buy into a vision, and then now you’re seeing it come true to see them walk across the stage and get their degrees. We talk about you can have the best of both worlds here, and those seniors are living it out, man. They’re having fun. The accolades are going to keep coming for us as a group, and that’s all the seniors are concerned about.”

Scoring Recap…

Just like the series opener on Friday night, Georgia Tech scored a run in the bottom of the first to take a quick 1-0 lead. After a Jarren Advincula two-out walk and stolen base, Vahn Lackey drove him in with an RBI single.

Georgia Tech added three more to its lead to make it 4-0 in the third thanks another RBI single by Lackey followed by a Ryan Zuckerman sac fly. The throw home on the sac fly got away from the catcher, allowing the third run of the inning to cross the plate.

Duke scored its first run of the day in the top of the fourth thanks to a sac fly by Collin Anderson to center to cut Tech’s lead to 4-1.

Georgia Tech busted the game open in a big way in the bottom of the fourth with nine runs, all coming via the long ball, to make it 13-1. Drew Burress started things off with a three-run homer crushed to left. A few batters later, Ryan Zuckerman launched a grand slam to left, and Alex Hernandez rounded out the scoring with a two-run shot to right center.

The Jackets added two more runs for good measure in the fifth as Will Baker drove in one on an RBI groundout and Advincula came home to score on a wild pitch as the lead ballooned to 15-1.

Duke’s final run came in the seventh on a solo homer by Tyler Albright to make it 15-2.

Up Next…

Georgia Tech and Duke will close out their three-game ACC series on Sunday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.

The first two games of the series were sell-outs, and Sunday’s game should be close to that as well. Ramsey said the support does not go unnoticed by his staff and his players.

“Yeah, it means a ton,” said Ramsey. “We talk to our guys a lot about preparing and playing every game like it is that (a regional-type atmosphere). I think our fans are doing a great job of continuing to be that, which is, ‘hey, we’re going to be a rowdy crowd that’s going to get behind (the team).’ There’s nothing better than a fan base that knows the intricacies of baseball too. It’s like a guy has a great at-bat and he walks. It’s not always the most fun thing. Everybody wants to see homers or strikeouts or whatever. But when you see our guys do something on the basepaths and our fans get into it, it means a lot. So I think we’re going to continue to do our part. I think it’s a fun team to watch.”