GEORGIA TECH: GAME 1

Despite shooting themselves defensively in the foot, the Canes take game 1 on the road 6-4. Miami did it the only way they knew how: strong pitching and the LONG ball. 5 of their 6 runs were Adios Amigo with the crusher coming in the 8th off the bat of Daniel Cuvet setting sail to center 406′ to give the lead back to the Canes for the final time. they would add an insurance run in the 9th to put the icing on the cake. Gage Ziehl gave another stellar performance with Brian Walters in relief to shut the door. The middle infield in the 4th inning almost single-handedly gave away the game costing three runs with two errors. The Wreck would go onto just two hits the remainder of the game, one being a solo shot in the 7th as Gage tightened the belt and Brian needed 25 pitches in the final two innings to seal the victory.

Miami took the early lead in the first with Edgardo taking the first pitch, driving it to right center (390′) giving Miami a 1-0 which they would hold until the 4th when the defense took center stage and went into self-destruct mode.

Tech opened the 1st and 2nd with lead-off singles and Gage came right back with a pair of DPs to squelch any chance for Tech to mount any attack. Through 3 innings Gage only needed 30 pitches to send them packing and return them back onto the field. The 4th is where it all changed. What should have been a 1,2,3 inning turned into a holy mess. One out grounder back to Dorian which should have been routine, he mishandles the ball and Tech has a runner on first. A pop-up to short for the second out which should have ended the inning, instead Tech plays on because of Dorian’s error. WP sends the man to second followed by a walk. Still not any damage. Gage has an 0-2 count on John Giesler before connecting with a single through the middle to tie the score at one. Things started going downhill from there. The first pitch to Payton Green hits him to load the bases. Miami could have escaped with just one run except for what followed. A grounder to short, Antonio picked it up and threw to second for the out. Dorian thought the play was to first had his back to Jimenez and never saw the ball striking him between the numbers. Two runs scored as a result of what should have been an end-of-inning routine 6-3 put-out. Tech took a 3-1 lead and Gage’s pitch count rocketed from 30-59.

Except for the HR in the first, The Cane bats were relatively quiet with only a single in the 4th. Jack Scanlon opened the 5th with a lead-off bunt single. Carrier with a strikeout in the second ties the game up taking the ball to left center 398’just clearing the fence to tie the game at three.

In the back-and-forth exchange of leads, Tech retakes the lead in the 7th  leading off with Payton Green’s 9th HR of the season. With 85 pitches, JD rolled the dice hoping Gage had enough left in the tank to get him through the 7th. The Gamble paid off ending the inning with only a single and 102 pitches.

With Tech leading by one, a pitching change brought Ben King to close it out.  King gets the first two batters then walks Edgardo on 5 pitches bringing David Cuvet to the plate. The TV announcers were talking about his HR power and as soon as they opened their mouths, it was bye-bye birdie on the first pitch to center 407′ to give the lead once again to the Canes  5-4.

JD goes with his best weapon from the BP Brian Walters. Twelve pitches were needed to take the 3 batters trekking back to the dugout. Miami puts up an insurance run in the 9th with a BL walk by JD Urso bringing home Lucas Costello who opened the inning with a single. The sad part is the Canes had BL with no outs and were only able to come away with a single run. They ended the inning on a 4-3 DP from Jacoby Long. That was the 3rd DP of the game against the Canes. 

JD stuck with Brian rather than chance it by looking elsewhere and Brian sealed the victory with quick groundouts to give Miami a must-win and saved the BP for another day. It was the Long Ball and pitching that were today’s difference makers. 

Offensively, if not for the long balls from Edgardo, Lorenzo, and Daniel accounting for 5 of our 6 runs this story would have been a whole lot different. There were no other extra-base hits and a scattering of 5 singles. The only player with multiple numbers today: Dorian Gonzalez 2-4. As I have written so often, we live or die by the HR and today we definitely lived. Tomorrow, the bats have to come out of the closet and come awake like their hitting performance they had in the third game against Louisville.

Defensively, we must play smarter. We can’t continuously shoot ourselves in the foot and expect our pitching or hitting to make up for it. The inexperience at first with JD Urso making his second appearance in that position will have to learn fast not knowing how long Jason Torres will be out of the lineup with an elbow injury. Our infield has been shaky all season and it is time to turn the page if we expect to make it to Charlotte.

Rafe gets the task of getting us that important series win but he won’t be able to do so without flawless play defensively and not having to rely on HR alone to take us to the winner’s circle. The first pitch for tomorrow is 4PM