A little more than 12 hours after he found out his team would not be one of 16 teams hosting an NCAA regional, Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall found out where his team would play its next game and whom it would have to beat to advance along the road to the College World Series.
“I think anytime this time of year you’re still playing, you’re excited. It’s just a great time of year, and I’m very proud of these guys sitting here behind me that won the ACC,” Hall said Monday on ESPN2. “We played a 30-game (ACC) schedule and came out on top, and that’s a huge accomplishment for them and for our program. We kind of thought we might have a great chance to host, being the league champion, but I’m not in that room, and I know they have a really hard time to get the top 16 teams in there and allow them to host.
“But our goals are still right in front of us. I’m just excited about the opportunity that we have to keep playing.”
After winning the ACC’s regular-season title and going 1-1 at the ACC tournament, the Yellow Jackets (40-17) had an RPI of 21 and a strength of schedule of 40 and went 12-11 against Quadrant 1 opponents and 13-0 against Quadrant 4 teams.
Tech became the first ACC regular-season champ since 1999 not to be rewarded with the advantage of hosting the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Instead, it was sent to the Oxford Regional in Mississippi and will face Western Kentucky at 4 p.m. Friday.
The Jackets will need to avoid two losses at Swayze Field to advance to their first Super Regional since 2006.
Tech is 23-22 in the regional round since 2008 and failed to make the field in 2007, 2015, 2017 and 2023. In 2006 the Jackets went 3-0 at Russ Chandler Stadium and then 2-0 in Athens to advance to the College World Series — it hasn’t reached that stage of the postseason since.
But Hall has another stout club with all the capabilities of making a deep run. Tech led the ACC in batting average, doubles, hits, runs, sacrifice flies and slugging percentage. It also had the second-best ERA in the league.
Right fielder Alex Hernandez was the ACC freshman of the year; pitcher Mason Patel is a Pitcher of the Year semifinalist; catcher Vahn Lackey is a Buster Posey Award semifinalist for top college catcher; center fielder Drew Burress and shortstop Kyle Lodise are Golden Spikes Award semifinalists for top amateur baseball player in the U.S.; and Lodise is a Brooks Wallace Award semifinalist for top college shortstop.
Those players are a major reason the Jackets have won 40 games for the first time since 2019 and have the program’s best road record (13-6) since 2004.
Hall’s club — the second-seeded team in the regional — not only will have to get by third-seeded Western Kentucky this weekend, but also looming are host and top seed Ole Miss (40-19) and fourth-seeded Murray State (39-13), which will face each other at 8 p.m. Friday. Times for Saturday’s and Sunday’s games have yet to be announced.
Western Kentucky won the Conference USA tournament with three walk-off wins to earn an automatic bid into the field of 64, while Murray State won four games in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament to qualify for the postseason.
Ole Miss went 16-14 in the SEC and 3-1 at the SEC Tournament, where it lost in the title game to Vanderbilt, the NCAA’s No. 1 overall seed.
This weekend’s games are set to be the last for Hall if the Jackets are eliminated. The veteran coach announced in March this season would be his last in the dugout.
“You don’t last 32 years at some place without great support from your administration and, obviously, great players,” Hall said. “I say it all the time: Great players make great coaches. That goes into the recruiting and goes into a lot of guys on my staff that have worked very hard throughout my 32 years, and many of them are head coaches in other spots now.
“It’s been, definitely, a family affair for me, but more important it’s just great for Georgia Tech to have a been, I think, a viable NCAA power for many, many years.”
Oxford Regional
Seeds, teams and records for the Oxford (Miss.) Regional of the NCAA Baseball Tournament
1. Ole Miss (40-19)
2. Georgia Tech (40-17)
3. Western Ky. (46-12)
4. Murray St. (39-13)
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