OXFORD, Miss. — In a wild game Saturday at Swayze Field, Georgia Tech could not sustain momentum from coming back from a seven-run deficit and eventually lost 13-11 to Murray State in the Oxford Regional.
The Yellow Jackets (41-18) now face elimination at 3 p.m. Sunday against top-seed and host Ole Miss. They would have to win that game and then beat fourth-seeded Murray State later Sunday to force a winner-take-all game Monday against the Racers.
“Obviously not the result we wanted tonight,” Tech coach Danny Hall said. “Gotta give Murray State credit, they had some great at-bats, got a lot of their runs with two outs. I know at one point in time it was several runs with two outs. They just kept battling. We couldn’t make pitches to get off the field and get ‘em out. To our guys’ credit, we figured out a way to get back and tie the game with a seven-run inning ourself — and then could just never get the lead.”
Tech led 3-0 after a half inning, then trailed 10-3 after four complete. The Jackets got off the deck and put together a thrilling, seven-inning fifth to tie the game. But they were never able to wrangle the lead from there.
The Racers (41-13) went back in front with two in the seventh and added another run for good measure in the eighth before Tech left the tying runs aboard in the top of the ninth. Graham Kelham notched his sixth save of the season for MSU.
Murray needs one more win to advance to the Super Regional round.
“It was a heavyweight battle right there,” MSU coach Dan Skirka said. “Toe to toe, punch for punch, back and forth, man, that kind of environment, in this stage, that’s kind of what you dream about for these guys to be able to go against a caliber of team like Georgia Tech and coach Hall and the product they put out on the field. I’m just really happy for them.”
In a 10-10 game Saturday, Tech reliever Kayden Campbell (2-1) had been cruising along into his third inning of work. But with one out in the seventh, he made a mistake to Jonathan Hogart, and Hogart made Campbell pay with a solo home run over the wall in left giving the Racers an 11-10 lead.
Luke Mistone’s RBI sacrifice fly off Tech reliever Caden Spivey gave Murray its 12th run and a two-run lead. Tech got one of those runs back on an RBI groundout by Kyle Lodise in the eighth, but Dan Tauken hit his second homer of the game, a solo shot to right center, making it 13-11 in the bottom half of the inning.
Tech used six pitchers in the game and all but one, Porter Buursema, who faced two batters and gave up a walk and a single, allowed at least one run. The Racers had 14 hits, hit four home runs and took advantage of seven Tech walks.
“They don’t strike out much, they walk a lot and we just didn’t make enough pitches. They just did a good job of hitting what we threw,” Hall said. “We made some mistakes on the home run balls. Just pitches not in good spots and if you don’t get ‘em in good spots, good hitters have a had a chance to run ‘em out of the ballpark. It’s unfortunate for us, but I think you just credit them.”
The start to Saturday’s affair was a positive one for Tech, briefly.
Lackey hit a two-run single in the first and would later score on a Murray State error giving the Jackets a 3-0 lead. But the Racers came right back with a pair of RBI singles and took a 4-3 lead on Tauken’s two-run hit to left.
All that drove Tech starter Brady Jones from the game. Mason Patel came in from the Tech bullpen and allowed a soft single to center by Conner Cunningham putting MSU up 5-3.
Jones was charged with five earned runs on four hits and he hit a batter. It was his second-shortest outing of the season.
Mistone came up with two on and two outs in the fourth and cranked a three-run home run into Tech’s bullpen in left field making it 8-3. That forced Patel out of the game after three innings, three walks, five hits and three earned runs. A fourth earned run went in the books when Brett Barfield came in and immediately served up a two-run home run to Tauken, who went 3-for-5 with 5 RBIs, to put the Racers up 10-3.
The four earned runs allowed by Patel were a season high.
“We’re feeling pretty good right now,” Tauken said. “We’re excited. We’re in the best spot in the regional right now to win the championship and we’re ready for (Sunday).”
Murray State starter Isaac Silva, meanwhile, found his groove and retired 10 straight hitters until Drew Rogers’ lead-off double into the left field corner in the fifth.
Rogers’ hit seemed to wake up Tech’s bats. Lodise and Alex Hernandez came through later in the inning with RBI singles and Lackey provided a massive jolt with a three-run no-doubter into the left-field seats off MSU reliever Reese Oakley drawing Tech within 10-8.
Tech coach Danny Hall called on senior John Giesler to pinch hit against Dylan Zentko (4-1) — and Giesler came through. On a 2-2 pitch, Giesler rolled a double over third base and down the line to score two and tie the game at 10-all.
The momentum virtually died right there for the region’s No. 2 seed.
“It’s a one-game shootout now between us and Ole Miss to try to see who can get back to try to beat Murray State in the championship game,” Hall added. “We’ll start Jaylen Paden (on the mound), he’s been great for us, and we’ll do whatever we need to do to try to win that first game (Sunday).”
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