Tech softball takes win over Georgia

1. The Georgia Tech softball team was one-hit by Georgia Wednesday night but procured a 2-0 win over the Bulldogs at Mewborn Field.

After leading off the inning on a walk, Chelsie Thomas scored from first on a throwing error in the bottom of the sixth for Tech’s first run. Ashley Thomas, whose bunt caused the throwing error, advanced to second on the throw to the plate, and came around on two ground-outs.

Pitcher Hope Rush threw a complete-game two-hitter for her 10^th win of the season.

Tech broke the No. 8 Bulldogs’ three-game winning streak in the series and earned a potentially momentum-creating win. The Jackets, picked in the preseason to win their fourth consecutive ACC regular-season title, were swept in their first ACC series last weekend by Virginia. Tech is 16-12. The Jackets play Jacksonville State Thursday night at home and has a home series against Boston College Saturday (doubleheader) and Sunday.

2. Those filling out their brackets Thursday morning might heed the wisdom of the Logistic Regression Markov Chain method created by three Tech professors and another colleague.

LRMC predicts a Final Four of Kentucky, Michigan State, Ohio State and Kansas, with the Wildcats beating the Buckeyes in the championship.

It also predicts first-round upsets by Texas, Belmont and N.C. State.

A school news release claims that the LRMC is “significantly better” at predicting NCAA tournament games than almost all other ranking systems such as RPI, Sagarin Ratings and the Pomeroy ratings.

The method was created by industrial and systems engineering professors Joel Sokol, Paul Kvam and George Nemhauser with help from a math professor from the City College of New York.

3. Eleven days until spring practice begins.

Thanks for reading.

Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog