Georgia Baseball wraps up non-conference series with a win
Georgia Baseball took two of three from Charleston Southern this weekend, wrapping up the non-conference series portion of their schedule at 12-4. After putting up a combined 26 runs in two games against Georgia Southern in a pair of midweek matchups, the Bulldog bats stayed hot to win the weekend series. Georgia scored 18 on Friday and 15 in the first half of a Saturday doubleheader, their ninth and tenth respective games this season reaching double figures.
Jaden Woods earned a win in his third straight start, going 4.2 innings allowing just three hits and one run with eight strikeouts. He got early run support with Georgia up 7-0 after the seventh spearheaded by a two-run bunt single with an error from Sebastian Murrillo and a single to center field from Will David that also scored a pair. While Charleston Southern got one back in the third, the Bulldogs kept tacking it on, scoring three of its own in the third on a Connor Tate home run, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and one more in the sixth to make it 16-1 in the blink of an eye. Murrillo and David both hit home runs during that stretch while David added an eighth inning double to add another RBI and leave him just a triple shy of the cycle. Georgia would win 18-9 after the pitching fell apart some late, giving up eight runs in the last three innings.
“We swung the bats really well,” Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin said. “When you put up 18 runs on the board, you are certainly happy with that. We wanted to finish things well. It doesn’t matter what the score is, when you have the opportunity to get an at bat and get an appearance, it will count in the stats. When games get out of hand like that, it was 16-1 at one point, those are tough games to play in on both sides. When you are down 16-1, you have nothing to lose. When you are up 16-1, you take your foot off the pedal because that is the way it is. We scored 18 runs, swung the bats really well and got off to a good start.”
Saturday saw a doubleheader at Foley Field with weather being a concern for the originally scheduled Sunday game. So, Georgia took the approach of getting the first out of the way quickly, run ruling the Buccaneers 15-0 in seven innings. As was the case with Woods, Liam Sullivan moved to 3-0 on the season after a no-decision in his first start. He went 5.0 hitless innings after a seven-inning no-hit bid just a couple of weeks ago. Zach DeVito extended the no-hitting into the sixth before Luke Wagner gave up a single with two outs in the seventh for Charleston Southern’s only hit. Meanwhile, at the plate, Connor Tate continued to rake. The super-senior hit a school-record three home runs, one in each of the first three innings. He didn’t even finish as the team-RBI leader though as Garrett Spikes had a three-run double in the first inning along with a sacrifice fly in the second to bring his total to four. Georgia led 12-0 after three on its way to a dominant 15-0 win.
One would think the bats would stay hot into the afternoon, but that didn’t end up being the case. Georgia only managed to put four across the plate in a 5-4 loss to wrap up the weekend. Charlie Condon hit his team-high seventh home run of the season to give him 32 RBI, best in the SEC. The two-run shot tied the game in the first but was the only action Georgia had on the scoreboard until the fifth inning when Josh Stinson hit a home run. A Mason LaPlante triple scored Will David in the seventh and got the Bulldogs back to within one, but Georgia stranded him there with one out, a tying run that would have been big later in the one-run loss.
“Game one, Liam Sullivan gave us a great start, and the offense was really clicking from all cylinders with Connor Tate hitting three home runs,” Stricklin said, assessing the doubleheader. “We really could not have played much better in game one. In game two, we talked to them about it after game one, ‘you have to turn the page. It is 0-0.’ They had their good bullpen arms waiting. We knew if they got a lead, and Kaleb Hill gets in, it is going to be a real challenge. He is really good. Hats off to them. They played really well in the finale. They made a lot of really good defensive plays. Fernando Gonzalez hits a ball in the gap, and they run it down. They just made every single play. It is unfortunate. You never want to lose a game. You win a series, but we have got to finish. That is the disappointing part.”
“It has been pretty fun,” David said about the start to the season. “Sometimes you get caught up in the moment and you don’t really take a step back and look at what this group can do. We have a bunch of really good baseball players on this team. It is still early, but I am really excited to see what this group of hitters can continue to do.”
Georgia is back in action on Tuesday against Wofford before beginning SEC play at home this weekend with South Carolina coming into town. The Gamecocks were ranked No. 20 this past week in the D1Baseball rankings with a 16-1 overall record.
