Georgia Tech, UGA baseball coaches disagree on value of neutral site game

Georgia Tech’s and Georgia’s baseball coaches expressed polar opposite views on playing a midweek game at Truist Park on Tuesday night.

Tech coach James Ramsey sang praises about the teams’ second-annual midweek neutral site meeting after a 14-4 run-rule win.

Ramsey likened the top-5 matchup to a College World Series atmosphere, as the teams played before an estimated crowd of 20,000 on Tuesday.

Truist Park does play very similarly to Charles Schwab Field, host of the CWS in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s 335 feet to the left-field wall and 375 feet to the power alleys in both parks. Truist Park’s right-field wall is 10 feet closer to home plate, and its distance to the center-field wall is 8 feet shorter.

The large bipartisan crowd and rivalry stakes also added to the postseason feeling on Tuesday night. Ramsey, a former Florida State outfielder who played in the CWS in 2010 and 2012, saw the midweek game as preparation for the postseason environment.

“I’ve had moments like that, so for those guys to play in this white noise with the extra decks on top of the stands, big foul territories,” Ramsey said. “That’s why I told them in the pregame, I said, ‘Hey, man, look around. You can’t act like these people aren’t here. You’re going to have butterflies, you’re going to have anxiousness.’

“But I told them to take it in, man.”

UGA coach Wes Johnson, who appeared appropriately frustrated after the team’s fourth midweek loss of the season, was less enthusiastic.

“I don’t know that we get anything out of it. I’ve said that for a while,” Johnson said. “I don’t know what we get out of it. This is cool, but I think it’s actually the other way.”

Johnson’s heavy-hitting Bulldogs scored all four of their runs on three homers. They also had several deep fly outs that could have done more damage in a smaller park like Georgia’s Foley Field.

“If you look at tonight and you look at the distances I just saw, we should have hit four homers if we were playing in a regular ballpark,” Johnson said. “I think it just actually evens the playing field, so I don’t think we get anything out of it, really, at the end of the day.”

Georgia Tech’s leading hitter, Drew Burress, enjoyed the difference from playing on a smaller college field. MLB.com’s No. 5 prospect for the 2026 draft class was 4-for-4 hitting with three RBI, a walk and a stolen base.

“I think it’s good when you can play at a park like this,” Burress said. “You think about Omaha, it’s going to be the same way. We’ve got to be able to win in big parks and small parks.

“Everyone’s been able to see how talented this Georgia Tech team is this year.”

Both teams figure to have realistic College World Series aspirations this season. They’re both leading their respective conference standings late in the season and are on track for top-16 hosting seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

But in Georgia’s first — and Georgia Tech’s second — neutral site game of the season, the Yellow Jackets looked better in the bigger ballpark.