Georgia Tech’s Tate McKee delivers a pitch to the plate during Friday’s game vs. Western Kentucky in the opening game of the Oxford Regional. McKee went seven innings, struck out six and gave up one run to earn the win.
Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall said earlier in the week that the ideal plan would be to go 3-0 in Oxford, and after a 9-2 win on Friday afternoon vs. Western Kentucky, the Jackets are a third of the way there.
Tech (41-17) got a huge offensive effort from Alex Hernandez and a gutsy performance by Tate McKee on the mound to open postseason play with a solid victory over the Hilltoppers in the opening game of the Oxford Regional at Swayze Field on the campus of Ole Miss.
“Just a good way to start the tournament. I thought it was huge for us,” said Hall. “Tate really pitched out of a little bit of a jam in the first inning, and then Alex huge three-run homer just to get us on the board. Then the game kind of got settled in. Tate was outstanding all day…kept making pitches when he had to with guys on base. And then (Carson) Ballard came in and did a good job. Then Alex just kind of put the game away in the eighth inning with a tremendous at-bat.”
McKee earned the win to move to 7-3 thanks to seven innings of work as he allowed one run on seven hits with six strikeouts and two walks. He threw 113 pitches and got out of several jams, including making some huge pitches in the seventh as he limited Western Kentucky (46-13) to just one run and stranded two to keep the Jackets’ lead at 5-1 at the time.
“Matt (Taylor) came out there in the seventh and said you’ve got these last two guys in the eight and nine hole, and the eight hole got a hit, then the nine hole came up and I got the out. Then he said alright, you’ve got to get this guy right here,” said McKee. “It was fun for sure. Yeah, I was running on some adrenaline for sure. Probably if I knew I was at 110 (pitches) I probably didn’t want to know that, but yeah, that’s kind of how I’m always running on adrenaline. I knew it was key to get through the seventh without having to use someone else because in that situation we probably would’ve gone with (Mason) Patel. And saving Patel, one of the best guys in the country, for whatever else we’ve got going on this weekend is key for sure.”
“I need some of that adrenaline,” joked Hall.
After McKee got out of a first and third jam with no damage in the top of the first, his offense quickly staked him to a 3-0 lead as Alex Hernandez connected with a 3-2 pitch to send it over the right-center field wall for a three-run homer.
Georgia Tech added on another run in the bottom of the second as Drew Rogers drove home Carson Kerce on a sac fly to center to make it 4-0. Kerce reached to lead off the inning on a double to right as a high fly ball was lost in the sun by the Hilltoppers’ right fielder.
Georgia Tech added another run in the sixth on a RBI bunt single by Kerce to make it 5-0, but the Jackets left the bases loaded in the inning as they were unable to add any more.
Western Kentucky put together its biggest threat in the seventh as Reid Howard had an RBI single to drive home the Hilltoppers’ first run, but with runners at first and second and just one out, McKee was able to get a fly out to left and a groundout to short to limit the damage to one run and send it to the bottom half with Tech leading 5-1.
The Jackets added another run in the seventh as a Western Kentucky throw got away for an error on a bunt laid down by Vahn Lackey to allow Kyle Lodise to come around to the plate from second to make it 6-1.
The Hilltoppers answered with one in the top of the eighth off Jackets’ reliever Ballard before Ballard was able to get out of the inning with no further damage and preserve a 6-2 Jackets’ lead. Ballard finished going two innings and allowing one run on two hits with three strikeouts.
Georgia Tech got the exclamation point in the bottom of the eighth as Hernandez crushed his second three-run homer of the afternoon to make it 9-2. Hernandez finished 4-for-5 in the win with two homers and six RBIs in his first NCAA tournament game.
“I’m not sure how many pitches it was (to Alex), but it was quite a few pitches. He found a pitch he could hit and didn’t miss it,” said Hall. “The ball wasn’t flying out of here today so to hit one off that batter’s eye…I mean that’s a bolt.”
“It just kind of felt like another game,” added Hernandez after his impressive performance in his first NCAA Tournament game. “Obviously it means a little more, but just wanted to go out there and not put too much pressure into it and overthink it and try to do too much. Treat it like every other game.”
Along with Hernandez, Tech’s Kerce and Kent Schmidt each had multi-hit games while Kyle Lodise had a hit and two runs scored. Rogers also had a hit and an RBI.
Drew Whalen suffered the loss for Western Kentucky to fall to 9-3 on the season. The Hilltoppers also used relievers Taylor Penn, Treyson Peters and Zach Lyles.
Howard, Camden Ross and Ethan Lizama were the three Western Kentucky hitters with multiple hits with Ross’s knock being a double. Hayes and Howard had the Hilltoppers’ only two RBIs.
Georgia Tech will play the winner of Friday night’s game between Ole Miss and Murray State on Saturday at 6 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Central.
Hall said after the win that his gut tells him that the Jackets will stick with their regular weekend rotation, meaning Brady Jones will get the Saturday start and that they will have everyone else rested other than McKee and Ballard, including the National Pitcher of the Year semifinalist Patel.
Western Kentucky will play the loser of that game on Saturday at 2 p.m. Eastern/1 p.m. Central in an elimination game.
Georgia Tech’s Alex Hernandez (4) is greeted by several teammates at home plate after one of his two three-run homers on Friday.
