This weekend, Stanford baseball will welcome No. 25 Georgia Tech to Sunken Diamond. Stanford comes in at 17-9 overall and 5-7 in the ACC while Georgia Tech comes in at 23-6 overall and 8-4 in the ACC. Game one will be on Friday at 6:05 PM PT. Game two will be on Saturday at 2:05 PM PT. Game three will be on Sunday at 1:05 PM PT. All three games will be on ACCNX.
Probable pitchers: Friday-Stanford sophomore righty Joey Volchko (2-0, 6.75 ERA) vs. Georgia Tech sophomore righty Tate McKee (4-0, 3.31 ERA).
Saturday-Stanford sophomore lefty Christian Lim (2-3, 7.88 ERA) vs. Georgia Tech junior righty Brady Jones (3-0, 3.47 ERA).
Sunday-Stanford junior righty Matt Scott (4-1, 5.01 ERA) vs. TBD.
Last time out: Stanford defeated Santa Clara by a final score of 6-5 on Tuesday. The game went into the 10th inning before Brandon Larson hit the game-winning RBI.
RECAP: Stanford defeats Santa Clara in extra innings
On Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets have had a strong season up to this point. They’re ranked, coming off a dominant 21-5 win over Mercer on Tuesday that ended after seven innings. Last weekend, they dropped two out of three games at home to No. 3 Clemson, but their two losses were by a combined run differential of three while their win over Clemson was an 18-2 beatdown that ended in seven innings. Their bats can really heat up.
Their top contact hitter is sophomore infielder Kent Schmidt, who is batting .415 for two home runs, 26 RBIs, a .622 slugging percentage and a .485 on base percentage. Their top power hitter is junior infielder Kyle Lodise who is batting .393 for 12 home runs, 38 RBIs, a .863 slugging percentage, and a .500 on base percentage.
As a team, the Yellow Jackets are batting .339 for 292 runs, 47 home runs, 267 RBIs, a .586 slugging percentage, and a .446 on bae percentage. Their opponents are batting .236 for 131 runs, 28 home runs, 124 RBIs, a .380 slugging percentage, and a .345 on base percentage. On the pitching side, the Yellow Jackets have a 4.08 ERA while their opponents have a 9.83 ERA.
Keys to the series: Something you might notice is that Joey Volchko is getting the Friday night start for Stanford instead of Matt Scott. Such a move is clearly made with the hope of stealing Friday’s game and taking some pressure off Scott by pushing him to Sunday. If Volchko has a big performance and Stanford is able to win on Friday, perhaps that will give them the juice they need to take the series. Just in general, the starting pitching needs to come through but it all starts tonight with Volchko.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is get hits with runners in scoring position. Stanford has done a good job of hitting as of late, but they’ve struggled at times to bring home runners who are in scoring position. If Stanford is able to improve their hitting with runners in scoring position, that would be huge.
Finally, Stanford needs to win the home run battle. Georgia Tech is used to winning the home run battle with three players hitting 9+ home runs on the season. If Stanford can hit more long balls, that would really help them stay competitive this weekend.
Prediction: Given the recent struggles Stanford has had, I have to pick Georgia Tech to win the series. However, I do see Stanford avoiding a sweep. Georgia Tech taking two out of three is how I see this going. A series win is doable for Stanford, but they’re going to have to play much better than they have the last two weekends.
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