Georgia Baseball eliminated at SEC Tournament, await postseason fate

Georgia Baseball’s run at the SEC Tournament was short-lived. The sixth-seeded Bulldogs dropped their opener in Hoover on Tuesday 5-3 to No. 11 Alabama and will now head back to Athens to await their fate for the postseason.

Things got off to a rough start on the day with first pitch being delayed due to rain. The grounds crew brought out the tarp just moments before the original 10:30 a.m. ET start time, and the teams weren’t able to get underway until just after 11:00.

Once the teams were able to take the field, Alabama jumped out to an early lead. A leadoff double followed by a single through the right side put the Crimson Tide up 1-0. Then with runners on the corners, a pop out caught in foul territory served as a sacrifice to get a second run across and advance the runner to second. To cap things off, a two-out, two-strike single scored that runner from second, and before the Bulldogs even got to bat, they were down 3-0.

In the second inning, Alabama tacked on two more, scoring one on a wild pitch with the bases loaded and another on a sacrifice fly. Parks Harber got one back for Georgia with a solo home run in the bottom of the second, and in the third, it was time for the tarp to come back on.

The second rain delay of the day lasted a little bit longer – just over two hours to be exact. That ended things for Chandler Marsh, already Georgia’s second pitcher of the day after Luke Wagner’s early struggles. However, it might have been for the better as Jaden Woods entered and had one of his best days in recent memory, going 4.0 innings allowing no runs, just one hit while striking out seven to tie his career-high in relief set early in the season against Wofford. Woods handed the ball over to Jack Gowen for the final two innings, also allowing just one hit.

While Georgia’s pitching settled in and shut down the Crimson Tide after the early struggles, the Bulldog bats simply couldn’t get going. Connor Tate hit a two-run home run to score both him and his twin brother Cole in the eighth, but that was all that they’d be able to get across. All three of Georgia’s runs came from the long ball, and in total, the Bulldogs had just eight base runners on the day.

“Well, I thought the game was won and lost in the first two innings,” Georgia coach Scott Stricklin said. “We get off to a slow start and — that’s what I said to the team in right field before we started was it’s 9:30 in the morning, who’s going to start, who’s going to come out of the gate ready to play, and next thing you know it’s 5-0 really quick. After then that I thought Jaden Woods did a great job of settling the game down, gave us a chance. This guy to my right (Parks Harber) got a big hit and gave us a run. We were able to scratch another two runs on an infield hit and a home run. It’s 5-3.

“So as poorly as I felt like we were playing, we’re still in the baseball game,” Stricklin added. “And I thought Ben Hess for them did a great job of kind of shutting us down. Really, really good stuff. I thought (Brock) Guffey was really good, and obviously Dylan Ray, bullpen is very, very accomplished. Bottom line we got beat. We got outplayed. It’s disappointing, but I know we’ve got more to play for, and we’re going to rest up, get healthy and get ready for next week.”

Georgia will now be forced to wait until Monday to figure out its next move. The NCAA Tournament selection show airs on Memorial Day at 12:00 p.m. ET, and the Bulldogs are still expected to be in with their strong RPI ranking, strength of schedule and overall resume.

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