Single to Omaha

Ok so over this past weekend I have come to the depressing realisation that only one of our Georgia teams is actually good enough to go to Omaha. While this was a sobering thought for me on Saturday night I have relaxed into it and discovered a strange amount of positives. Without further ado let’s delve into the fun filled world of NCAA baseball in Georgia.

The Yellow Jackets are making a believer out of me. It’s not just the fact that they’ve been winning but the manner they’ve been doing it. Florida State are the only team right now who are combing hitting and pitching as effectively as Tech, the Jackets outscored Rutgers 33-9 over the weekend with the starting pitchers giving up only four runs combined. All four were charged to Brandon Cumpton. So after avoiding the obvious last week I’m going to get straight to it this week. Deck McGuire is sensational. LSU’s Anthony Ranaudo and Texas’ Taylor Jungmann are deservedly being given a lot of the press but McGuire is pitching at exactly the same level. He has started three games giving up 3 runs, 2 earned. Most impressive is the 25 strikeouts in 22 innings, that is exactly the kind of dominance that Tech needs from Mr Friday Night. This weekend saw the explosive offense keep exploding and was this time paced by sophomore Jacob Esch and junior Cole Leonida. Esch had multi hit games in all three weekend games helping to boost his season average to .500 while Leonida had 6 hits in 9 at bats Saturday and Sunday. They were given plenty of support by the increasingly impressive junior’s Chase Burnette and Derek Dietrich and sophomore Matt Skole. Despite both Virginia and Texas losing over the weekend it wasn’t enough to move the 10-1 Jackets above 4th in the Baseball America rankings. If they keep playing this way it will be difficult to keep them down.

After the worst possible start to the 2010 season Georgia State have set about rebuilding and with yesterdays win over UNC-Asheville have fought their way back to .500 on the season. After struggling to score runs during their 6 game losing streak someone set the State bats on fire as they proceeded to set all manner or records against North Carolina Central. This four game series never looked like being close after the Panthers 32-3 win on Friday night and it never was, GSU outscoring their opponents 103-10 (that is no typo that actually says 103!). Junior Mark Micowski provided a huge lift for team when they needed it most hitting for the cycle and going 7 for 8 at the plate with 7 RBI’s. It also provided the State pitchers with the opportunity to arrest their downward slide, which they did in emphatic fashion. Sophomore reliever Justin Malone continues to impress on the mound having not allowed a run now since April, the rest of the bullpen have supported that effort with five guys now having ERA’s of under 4.00. After the first week of the season that is really good trust me. Starter Charley Olson has also overcome his early season problems reducing his season ERA to 2.79 and now has 15 strikeouts to only 5 walks, head coach Greg Frady would have taken that when he chose Olson as the Panther ace.

I desperately wanted to get through this without having the address the Georgia Bulldogs, or the team currently imitating the Georgia Bulldogs. It all started early last week when they found out promising freshman shortstop Kyle Farmer would miss 3-6 weeks with wrist surgery. I nearly blogged on how bad this would be for the Dawgs, I never thought I’d ever be so right. It continued at Regions Park in Hoover, Alabama last Wednesday when the Dogs had their butts handed to them by an impressive Crimson Tide team and provided the first indication that the offense was drying up. Then came the ‘Turmoil in Tallahassee’ as I have named it. Unless you are Texas you cannot go to the number 6 ranked team in the nation and expect to win when you score 8 runs. The most startling thing about the weekend series against the Seminoles was how weak the Georgia pitching is, giving up 38 runs is unacceptable when you have aspirations. Friday night starter Justin Grimm capitulated against FSU going only four innings giving up 7 earned runs, 9 in total and 11 hits. Jeff Walters lasted even shorter time giving up 3 runs and 6 walks in only 1.2 innings of work and Sunday was even worse as Michael Palazzone went 1.1 innings while spotting the ‘Noles 7 runs, 6 earned. Losing to Florida State and Alabama while annoying was nothing compared to Tuesday night at Foley field. Georgia lost 11-1 to Kennesaw State!

Player of the Week; For lifting his team up when they needed it most this weeks PotW goes to Georgia State junior Mark Micowski for his outstanding performance on Friday night and solid play over the entire weekend. Credit also goes to GSU senior Bradley Logan who set a new school record for runs scored (166) on Saturday.