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Freshman Daniel Palka returns to his home state of South Carolina this weekend.

 
Freshman Daniel Palka returns to his home state of South Carolina this weekend.
  
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No. 9 Georgia Tech Set to Battle No. 23 Clemson

Yellow Jackets face Tigers at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday

April 28, 2011

Game Notes Get Acrobat Reader

ATLANTA - The ninth-ranked Georgia Tech baseball team (30-12, 17-4 ACC) will continue Atlantic Coast Conference play with a three-game series at No. 23 Clemson (27-14, 11-10 ACC) this weekend at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 1 pm. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

Pitching Matchup (Georgia Tech vs. Clemson)
Friday: RHP Mark Pope (9-1, 1.01, 80.1 IP, 67 SO) vs. RHP Dominic Leone (2-1, 3.66, 32.0 IP, 35 SO)
Saturday: LHP Jed Bradley (4-2, 2.98, 60.1 IP, 78 SO) vs. RHP Jonathan Meyer (4-0, 2.66, 44.0 IP, 46 SO)
Sunday: RHP Buck Farmer (7-1, 3.27, 63.1 IP, 68 SO) vs. TBD

BROADCAST INFORMATION
Saturday's game will air live on FS South with first pitch slated for 1:06 p.m. Mike Hogewood (play by play) and Dan Bonner (color) will have the call. The GT radio broadcast can be heard over the air on WREK (91.1), the flagship station of Georgia Tech baseball, and online at RamblinWreck.com.

SERIES PREVIEW

  • Georgia Tech (30-12, 17-4 ACC) enters the week ranked as high as No. 9 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Perfect Game USA top-25 polls. The Jackets are also ranked in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' (11), Baseball America (12) and National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association (13) polls.
  • Tech is coming off a 6-4 midweek loss on Tuesday against Georgia at Turner Field ... The Jackets swept Boston College last weekend in ACC play, and have won nine of their 10 weekend series this season ... Tech is in second place in the ACC Coastal Division, one game back from division leader Virginia.
  • Friday's game will be the 203rd all-time meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1902 ... Both Danny Hall (297) and Clemson head coach Jack Leggett (298) will seek their 300th career ACC win this weekend ... Florida State's Mike Martin (356) is the only active ACC coach with over 300 career conference victories.
  • Clemson (27-14, 11-10 ACC) returns 20 letterwinners and seven starters (four position players) from a 2010 team that went 45-25 overall, tied for first in the ACC Atlantic Division (18-12) and reached the College World Series.
  • The Tigers have won 13 of their last 15 games, and are coming off a pair of midweek wins over Furman (W, 5-0) and Western Carolina (W, 6-4) ... Clemson is batting .313 on the season, second best in the ACC behind Georgia Tech ... The pitching staff commands are 3.45 ERA.

    SERIES HISTORY
    Clemson holds a slim 100-99-3 edge in the all-time series ... Tech won three of the four meetings in 2010, including a sweep during the regular season a Russ Chandler Stadium ... The Tigers are 43-20-1 against Tech in games played in Clemson ... The Jackets are 30-35 against Clemson since head coach Danny Hall's arrival on the Flats in 1994.

    Last Meeting: Clemson's Richie Shaffer scored three runs and drove in three, while freshman Will Lamb pitched 6 1/3 strong innings to lead the Tigers to a 9-3 win over sixth-ranked Georgia Tech at the 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championships on Mat 29, 2010 at NewBridge Bank Park.

    The loss eliminated Georgia Tech from contention for the ACC title game.

    QUICK HITS

  • Georgia Tech currently leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in hitting (.316) while holding the second lowest ERA at 2.83 ... Tech's batting average is tied for the 10th best in the nation, while the team's 470 hits are tied for sixth ... The pitching staff's 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings rank fifth.
  • The Jackets are outscoring opponents 292-165 this season, and are averaging 11.2 hits and 7.0 runs per game.
  • Tech has recorded multiple hits in 27 of the 42 games on the season, and in seven of the last 11.
  • Freshman centerfielder Kyle Wren leads the ACC in hits (68) while second in batting average (.378) and third in runs scored (44) ... His 68 hits are the second most in the nation.
  • Tech's three weekend pitchers - Mark Pope, Jed Bradley and Buck Farmer - have combined for a 20-4 record ... Pope is leads the ACC in six different categories, including wins (9) and lowest ERA (1.01) ... His nine wins tie for the most in the nation, while his earned run average is sixth.
  • Georgia Tech has won 12 of its last 13 weekend series, including nine of 10 this season ... The team has swept five of them.
  • The Jackets won 16 straight games from March 4 to March 29, their longest streak since the 2006 season.
  • Seventeen of Georgia Tech's 34 players on the roster are freshmen ... All 17 have played this season while 10 have made at least one start.

    YELLOW JACKETS IN THE RPI

  • Georgia Tech is currently ranked No. 8 in the latest NCAA RPI rankings (as of April 26)... The Jackets are No. 8 in the latest Pseudo-RPI (source: BoydsWorld.com).

  • The Atlantic Coast Conference is well represented in the RPI, with six teams ranked among the top 25 in the nation. Virginia, ranked No. 1 in the country in the RPI, leads all conference teams while North Carolina (4), Florida State (7), Georgia Tech (8), Miami (11) and Clemson (12) all rank in the top 25.

    UP NEXT
    Georgia Tech will take a week off for finals, before playing a non-conference weekend series at Illinois-Chicago next Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

    LEFTOVERS FROM LAST WEEKEND
    Georgia Tech picked up its fifth weekend series sweep of the season, winning three games against Boston College at Russ Chandler Stadium (2-0, 8-1 and 10-8). All three of Tech's weekend pitchers recorded wins, as the 1-2-3 punch moved its record to a combined 20-4 ... Pope (9-1) highlighted the weekend with his third complete-game shutout of the season in Friday's 2-0 win ... Junior Jed Bradley (7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 6 SO) paced Saturday's attack with a quality start on the mound, while eight of the team's nine starter had a hit and six drove in runs for the sweep on Sunday.

    WEEKEND THREE ARE KEY
    Georgia Tech's weekend rotation of Mark Pope (Friday), Jed Bradley (Saturday) and Buck Farmer (Sunday) has keyed the team's success so far this season. The 1-2-3 punch is a combined 20-4, with a collective 2.29 ERA (53 earned runs in 204 innings). Pope leads the crew in wins (9) and ERA (1.01). Bradley leads the crew in strikeouts with 78, while Farmer is currently on a seven-game win streak.

    QUALITY AND QUANTIY
    Quality starts (six innings pitched, three or fewer runs allowed) are pretty much the norm for Georgia Tech starters. Heading into this weekend, Yellow Jackets hurlers have 21 quality starts in 30 appearances. Pope is almost a given, as he has nine and hasn't pitched fewer than seven innings since Feb. 25, against St. John's, when he left in the sixth inning with a 13-0 lead. Buck Farmer and Jed Bradley each have six quality starts, with five each over their last seven starts. That means a lot of innings pitched. Pope and Farmer both are in the top 10 in the ACC, as Pope leads the ACC with 80 1/3, while Farmer is six with 63 1/3.

    HALL CLOSES IN ON 300 ACC VICTORIES
    Georgia Tech Head Coach Danny Hall has a chance to reach 300 conference wins this weekend. He enters this series with Clemson with 297 ACC victories. He has nine conference games left to reach the milestone. Hall, who has never had a losing season in his 18 seasons on The Flats, has averaged 16.3 conference wins per season. He enters the weekend with a career record of 975-457-1, a career .670 win percentage.

    HOMECOMING
    This weekend's series will be a homecoming of sorts for freshman Daniel Palka. Palka's hometown of Lyman, S.C. is just 50 miles away from Clemson. Tech's designated hitter leads the team and ranks third in the ACC with eight home runs this season. He is batting .313 with 38 RBI and a .575 slugging percentage. Palka is coming off a 3-for-4 performance with a double and a home run against Georgia on Tuesday.

    POPE SETS MODERN DAY RECORD FOR SHUTOUTS
    Junior Mark Pope's complete-game shutout masterpiece against Boston College last Friday was his third this season, and the fourth of his career. It set a modern day record, surpassing four others that were tied at 3. Craig Day (1903-06) and Ed LaFitte (1906-07) each had six in the early 1900's.

    EARNING EVERY BUCK After beginning the season in a 0-1 hole (including a no-decision in his first start), sophomore pitcher Buck Farmer has gone on to win seven straight games on the mound. Five of those have come against ACC opponents, giving him a perfect 9-0 record against conference foes in two years on the Flats.

     

     

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