Georgia Tech came into Sunday needing only one win to vault themselves past hated Georgia and into the NCAA Super Regional. They had their weekend starters ready to roll – everything looked fine. But like in any other sport that matters this year (and even in those that don’t) Tech couldn’t get past Georgia when they needed to most.
To put it in terms “Tech fan” will understand (Dungeons & Dragons): the roll of the polyhedral dice came up on the wrong side of the wizard… again. Tech was blasted out of the Athens Regional 18-6.
J.R.R. Tolkien disciples on North Avenue are not pleased.
Still, these Jackets are just playing out the hand they were dealt – one in which hated Georgia gets the last laugh in any significant sporting event between the two rivals. The Dawgs ruled the gridiron this season and the six seasons before it. Dennis Felton’s Dawgs beat Tech earlier that season in Athens. Georgia’s baseball team knocked off Tech at Turner Field, a game that just feels like the most important between the two programs on the diamond. Monday made it a clean sweep for the Dawgs over their foes from the big city.
Things are so bad for Tech that even when the Jackets are not involved Georgia gets to rub it in. A mustache-less Felton must still be smiling about how the Dawgs cut down the nets after the most improbable of runs to win the SEC Basketball Tournament – on Tech’s home floor no less. (You mean to tell me that Georgia basketball won the SEC at the Thrillerdome? Not even the craftiest Dungeon Master could have plotted that one. )
Monday night was no different. Tech got a lead after the first – Georgia took the lead back in the second. Tech needed outs – Tech got errors. Georgia had as many runs as hits; Tech had as many errors as runs. Even by a Georgia grad’s math that one doesn’t add up to a win.
No one knows what the next round of baseball will bring for the Dawgs, but for Tech Monday night was the same as the rest of the recent sporting events with Georgia – nothing more than “Buzz”kill.