Georgia Tech Loses To Louisville on Walk-off Hit In 9th Inning

Georgia Tech loses second straight game on a walkoff hit

Jackson Caudell | Mar 17, 2023

Georgia Tech was on the road for the first time in ACC play this season and they were going up against one of the ACC's best teams this weekend.

Louisville is ranked No. 8 in the D1Baseball rankings and has the fourth-ranked pitching staff in the ACC in terms of ERA. Georgia Tech boasts a good offense and it was going to be an interesting matchup to see which unit got the better of the other.

The Yellow Jackets appeared to be well on their way to victory on Tuesday night at Auburn after going up 7-0, but the pitching struggled down the stretch and they lost 12-11 in extra innings to the Tigers.

Despite a comeback from the offense, Tech gave up another walk-off hit and errors and an uncharacteristic pitching performance from Terry Busse gave the Yellow Jackets a third straight loss.

Georgia Tech Baseball — Georgia Tech had their first ACC road series tonight / Georgia Tech Athletics

Dawson Brown has been the regular Friday night starter for Georgia Tech this year and he got the start again tonight.

Here was the lineup the Yellow Jackets went with tonight:

1. CF- Jake DeLeo

2. IF- Angelo Dispigna

3. 3B- Drew Compton

4. C- Jack Rubenstein

5. RF- Stephen Reid

6. 1B- Jackson Finley

7. DH- Kristian Campbell

8. 2B- Nicholas Romano

9. SS- Jadyn Jackson.

The pitching staff of Louisville is one of the ACC's best and they got off to a great start, sitting down the Yellow Jackets' top three hitters in order to begin the game. Brown got two quick outs but then gave up a walk. With Patrick Forbes facing a 3-2 count, Brown got the strikeout to end the first inning and not let the Cardinals get multiple runners on base.

After a scoreless second inning from both teams, Tech was sat down 1-2-3 and through the first three innings, they had just one hit.

Brown got into his first real trouble of the night when Louisville loaded the bases and Forbes cashed in with an RBI triple to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead. That would be all for Louisville, but with how their pitching was going, 3-0 seemed like a larger lead.

Georgia Tech got their second base runner of the game in the 4th inning courtesy of Rubenstein being hit by a pitch, but the bats remained cold and it was another scoreless inning for the Yellow Jackets.

Two-out RBIs were the theme for Louisville early on against Tech and after two quick outs from Brown, he gave up a single and then a walk to put two runners on. An RBI single from Knapcyzk extended the Cardinal's lead to 4-0. Brown got a strikeout to end the inning, but Georgia Tech left the 4th in an even bigger hole.

Campbell got a single to get a base runner on for GT, but he tried stealing second and was thrown out. Louisville recorded the other outs and then went back to work on offense at the bottom of the inning.

Louisville extended the lead to 5-0 with a leadoff solo home run, but Brown did well to get out of the inning.

After a rough first five innings behind the plate, Georgia Tech's offense ignited in the top of the 6th.

Singles from Jackson, DeLeo, and Dispigna loaded the bases and then Compton came up with a huge 3-RBI hit to cut the lead to 5-3. Rubenstein hit an RBI single of his own to make it 5-4 and Louisville then made its first pitching change.

Even after the pitching change, Georgia Tech's offense continued to produce. Reid reached on a fielders error and then a flyout advanced the runners. A 2-RBI single from Jackson gave Georgia Tech its first lead of the game at 6-5.

JADYN JACKSON!! TECH LEADS!!@jadynjackson1 | #WreckHavoc pic.twitter.com/NvdjN0Osym
— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) March 17, 2023

That would be it for the inning but after trailing 5-0 entering the inning, Georgia Tech had a 6-5 lead heading to the bottom of the 6th.

Joseph Mannelly came in to pitch the bottom of the sixth and got through it without giving up a run.

Dispigna led off in the second and was hit by a pitch and then a Compton single put runners on the corners for Tech. A sac fly from Rubenstein made the lead 7-5. Reid doubled and it looked like Compton would score, but was out at home. Finley struck out to end the inning, but it was a two-run lead now for GT.

After letting runners reach second and third, Mannelly was replaced by Ben King. King got two ground outs, but a hit from Louisville made it 7-6.

After a scoreless top of the inning from Tech, Terry Busse came in to pitch and for opponents, that usually means game over. That was not the case tonight, as Busse would pitch his worst game of the season.

After a runner reached on an error, Busse gave up a single and then a walk to load the bases.

A bases-loaded walk tied the game 7-7.

Busse would strike out two, but that was an extremely disappointing result for Tech, as Busse had not given up a run all year before that one.

Dispigna got a single and then a steal to reach second, but the Yellow Jackets could not score. Louisville would have a chance to win it in the bottom of the 9th.

Busse got two quick outs and it looked like Georgia Tech was going to play in their second straight extra innings game. Busse gave up another walk and the runner then advanced to second on a wild pitch to put him in scoring position. After another walk, Busse gave up an RBI single and Louisville won the game.

The loss drops Georgia Tech to 13-5 for the season and 2-2 in ACC play.

Game two is tomorrow, with the first pitch set for 1:00 p.m.

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