Jackets lose big lead, Sooners rally to force decisive Monday game

It’s been 20 years since Georgia Tech advanced to a Super Regional, and the program will have to wait at least one more day if it is going to end that drought.

The Jackets built an 8-2 lead after three and a half innings, but Oklahoma quickly turned the game completely around with an eight-run bottom of the fourth and didn’t look back on the way to a 15-8 victory Sunday night at Mac Nease Baseball Park at Russ Chandler Stadium to force a do-or-die game at the Atlanta Regional on Monday.

“A lot of credit goes to Oklahoma, the way they played backs against the wall. They did a great job of fighting, continuing to fight. Eight-run inning was the biggest difference, and then adding four insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth,” said Georgia Tech head coach James Ramsey. “I think what it comes down to is making plays in big moments, coming up with big hits, playing good defense and finding a guy that you trust to have the ball in his hand and get big outs for you.

“You tip your hat, and this is baseball. You have two really good teams. We knew what we were getting in Oklahoma was a team that’s very capable on all sides of the ball, and we got a really good shot from them tonight. So, for us, it’s all about coming in tomorrow, be the home team in our ballpark with a chance to win a regional. So I feel really confident in our leadership and the effort that we’re going to put out tomorrow in front of our fans.”

Georgia Tech (50-10) never scored again after its one run in the fourth to push the lead to 8-2, which was quickly followed by Oklahoma’s eight-run bottom half of the inning, highlighted by a grand slam from Deiden Lachance to put his team up 9-8.

The Sooners (35-22) added a run in the seventh and four more in the eighth to further take away any Tech confidence of a late comeback to clinch the Atlanta Regional.

“I would say for the most part, obviously, they made some good pitches, but I think it was just a momentum thing,” said Georgia Tech junior star Drew Burress after the loss. “Once we kind of lost that momentum after the eighth-run inning, I think we kind of struggled to get it back. We had quite a few opportunities, too, and the big swing just didn’t come. I think that’s one thing that happens in games like this, and that’s how you get beat. The big swing didn’t come, and I think just one swing could have changed the momentum and changed how that game went for sure.”

Part of that shutdown effort by Oklahoma in the final several innings was reliever LJ Mercurius who came on and threw four shutout innings to close the game for his second save as he allowed only one hit, struck out three and walked one. That followed his three-inning effort in Saturday’s game vs. The Citadel.

Gavyn Jones (1-0) earned the win for the Sooners thanks to two innings of scoreless relief of his own prior to Mercurius as he also only allowed one hit, struck out three and walked one.

Oklahoma used two pitchers before that, including starter Cameron Johnson who lasted just three batters, giving up a walk, a two-run homer to Burress and a hit by pitch. Jackson Cleveland came on to pitch after that and had a rough outing, going three innings and giving up six runs (five earned) on five hits with three strikeouts and two walks.

Lachance was one of nine different Sooners’ batters to record at least one hit and one of seven to have multi-hit efforts in the season-saving win. He finished 2-for-4 with his grand slam while Brendan Brock was 3-for-4 with a pair of homers, four RBIs and three runs scored.

Jason Walk added three hits and three RBIs in the leadoff spot for Oklahoma while Trey Gambill was 2-for-4 with a solo homer and two runs scored. Kyle Branch contributed two hits and two RBIs, Jaxon Willits had a pair of hits, including a double, Dasan Harris had an RBI double and Dayton Tockey chipped in with two hits and two runs scored.

The Sooners’ offensive numbers show what turned out to be a rough night for the Tech staff as eight different pitchers saw time on the mound with five of them allowing at least one run. Caden Gaudette (6-2) took the loss after coming on in the fourth and not recording an out while allowing four runs on four hits.

Gaudette followed starter Jackson Blakely who went just three frames and gave up five runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Brett Barfield had a scoreless outing over one inning of work as he gave up one hit and struck out one, and Kayden Campbell and Adam McKelvey each tossed 1/3 of an inning scoreless.

Cooper Underwood, Justin Shadek and Caden Spivey combined to allow six runs on six hits in 3 1/3 innings.

Burress finished with three hits, including his two-run homer to lead the Jackets’ bats while Alex Hernandez continued his impressive regional performance so far as well with a two-run homer to push his RBI total for the weekend to 13.

Ryan Zuckerman and Jarren Advincula each added a hit and two RBIs, and Carson Kerce had a hit, three walks and three runs scored. Parker Brosius had the only other hit.

Burress said he and his teammates have the experience of losing a regional the last two years, and they are set on not letting that happen again on Monday.

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve been there. We know how bad it sucks,” said Burress. “To be honest with you, we’re not going to let it happen again. Today, we weren’t good enough. There was really no way around it. We got out-hit. We got out-pitched. I mean we had chances to win the game, and we just didn’t do what we needed to do. But at the end of the day, this team is a group of winners and we’ve been doing this all year. We’ve had our backs against the wall multiple times, and we’ve come out on top, and I think that’s exactly what we’re expecting to do tomorrow.”

Scoring Recap…

The Jackets grabbed some early momentum with Drew Burress launching a two-run homer to left in the top of the first to take a 2-0 lead.

Oklahoma evened the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the second when Brendan Brock sent a two-run homer to left.

Georgia Tech’s bats put together one of their typical big innings in the top of the third as the Jackets struck for five runs to take a 7-2 lead. Carson Kerce scored on a wild pitch, Ryan Zuckerman followed with a two-run single and Alex Hernandez had the big blast of the inning, a two-run homer to left center, to put Tech up by five.

Tech added another run to its lead in the fourth to make the score 8-2 on a Jarren Advincula sac fly to bring in Kerce.

Oklahoma’s lineup exploded for eight runs in the bottom of the fourth to turn the game around and make it a 10-8 Sooners lead. Brock started things with a solo homer, then Kyle Branch and Jason Walk added RBI singles later in the inning, and Deiten Lachance had the big blow, a grand slam, to put his team ahead. Trey Gambill connected for a solo homer to right for another tally.

Oklahoma got another run in the seventh on an RBI groundout by Jason Walk to push the lead to 11-8.

The Sooners added four more to make it 15-8 in the eighth on RBI singles by Brock, Branch and Walk and a sac fly by Dasan Harris.

Up Next…

Georgia Tech and Oklahoma will meet again on Monday at 3:06 p.m. to decide which team will advance from the Atlanta Regional to next weekend’s Super Regional round.

Carson Ballard will get the start for the Jackets while Michael Catalano will start for Oklahoma.

When asked about the doubt possibly creeping in for his team and thinking about the 20-year Super Regional drought, Ramsey had a clear answer.

“I think my head is ghosts aren’t real, right?” said Ramsey. “I think you look at this as the 2026 Yellow Jackets. I think that we have an opportunity right in front of us. I think it’s an unbelievable opportunity that you can get greedy and say, ‘you know, who wouldn’t take this?’ If you sat here and told our guys you have a chance to play at home to get out of a regional and you didn’t know what was behind the other door, you’d take that every single time. I mean you’ve got these two right here (Burress and Kerce). They’re going to lead off when we get to hit, and there’s nobody I’d trust when things get tough more than these two guys. They’re winners, and so I know they’re going to find a way to win tomorrow.”