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.

Something New

Ok, lets try something different. I’ve done college football and major league baseball, now I’ve had a brain wave to have a go at College Baseball. Languishing in the shadow of both college football and basketball it goes about its business providing scholarships for kids and incredible entertainment (just watch last years College World Series). Until the NCAA tournament I won’t look at any teams from across the nation for two reasons; 1.)That I don’t have enough time or inclination to do that yet and 2.) it’s not the easiest sport to follow from 2,000 miles away. Instead I’ll try and give a weekly breakdown on the Georgia Bulldogs, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Georgia State Panthers, hopefully I’ll still be doing three when championships get handed out.

Let’s start with the best of the bunch. Georgia Tech started the season ranked by both USA Today and Baseball America, they bounced up to number three while starting 7-0 before dropping a home game to Xavier on Sunday. Before that setback Tech had lit up Missouri State, Georgia Southern and Xavier, scoring 81 runs and conceding only 18. So far the Jackets superstar pitcher Deck McGuire has thrown 14 innings in 2 games and done exactly what is expected of him, other Tech pitchers have done way more; Mark Pope and Brandon Cumpton being the early standouts. In his one start Pope gave 6 innings of shut out ball striking out 7, Cumpton is the only pitcher to have won both his starts so far this year. While McGuire will carry the staff through the season it’s up to Cumpton and the others as to how dominant this Tech team can be. What this week proved is that the fans at Russ Chandler are in for an entire season of entertainment. Unlike McGuire the hitting has no stand out player to carry them and, apparently, the line up got that particular memo. Seven Tech hitters have started out hitting over .400 with three of them being every day players, Chase Burnette, Jacob Esch and Cole Leonida. Junior outfielder Burnette has been most impressive, playing everyday, hitting .531 with 2 home runs and 11 RBI’s, at this rate the Buford native will be one of the stars of both ACC and NCAA competition.

Georgia lacks everything Tech has; stars, national ranking, experience and a good start. Having been ranked 22nd by Baseball America preseason they proceeded to drop games to both Baylor and Duke out in Waco. When they got back to Athens home cooking apparently kick started the Dawgs season with them going 4-0 against Presbyterian and Stetson. With those wins they finished the first week of the season at 25 in Baseball America’s rankings, which is still something of a disappointment seeing some teams above them. With only four seniors on the roster it was always going to take time to build a winning atmosphere and it was important they put together a nice winning streak. Like Tech the Bulldogs production has been spread around with several players racking up high averages. Catcher Christian Glisson has impressed most of all with his Joe Mauer effort of .522 in 8 games, 6 of them starts. A perfect example of the Dawgs young talent is infielder Kyle Farmer who, in 6 games, has hit .458 with 5 doubles and 5 RBI’s. With players like Farmer and fellow freshman Todd Hankins performing so early in their college careers the Georgia offence can only improve. As a junior, Justin Grimm is the senior member of the pitching staff and integral to their potential success. In 2 games and 10.2 innings Grimm stepped up and lead by example producing a 1.69 ERA which gives Bulldog fans hope that he can provide them with the reliable starter every contender needs.

While Tech sits at 7-1 and UGA is 6-2 Georgia State is yet to experience that sweet taste of victory. Starting the season with three road games at national championship chasing Florida State always looked tough, and so it proved with the Panthers getting blown out in all three games. USC-Upstate should have given the State club a winning start at Panthersville, not so much with State going 0-2 home and away. GSU has seven games at home starting Wednesday and need to gain some serious momentum, luckily Mercer, North Carolina Central and UNC-Asheville are perfect opportunities for the reining CAA champs to rebuild their season. Junior outfielders Ryan Fleming and Mark Micowski are providing the only real spark for State with Fleming hitting .500 and Micowski .350, worryingly the teams only two hot hitters have combined for 1 RBI. Senior third baseman Bradley Logan while only hitting .273 has been the only Panther with pop, hitting the teams only 2 home runs. Sophomore reliever Justin Malone has been the only pitcher who has impressed, giving up 1 hit in 4 innings work with no runs. Charley Olson and Ben Marshall, the Panther starters have struggled so far while still being the best of a so far bad bunch. After five games the team ERA sits at the pretty ugly figure of 9.88, not exactly a championship effort so far. Unlike the Jackets and Dawgs, State has no stars and nobody standing out after the first week of the season, that will have to change this week if they are going to be successful.

Star of the Week; With both Tech and Georgia having candidates it was difficult to select one star so early with man deserving honourable mentions, however I have picked one; Georgia Techs Chase Burnette. In his first season starting everyday Burnettes .531 average and 11 RBI’s has been at the heart of the Jackets explosive offense.