Georgia facing elimination in NCAA Tournament after falling in first game
It’s one game into the weekend, and Georgia already has its back against the wall in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. The Bulldogs dropped Friday night’s contest 8-1 against VCU and now play in a win-or-go-home elimination game against the No. 4 seed in the Chapel Hill regional Hofstra at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Things got going against Georgia early in its contest versus VCU. Starting pitcher Jonathan Cannon, who Scott Stricklin and company were relying upon for a strong outing to keep the bullpen arms as fresh as possible, only went 3.2 innings as he allowed five runs on seven hits, walking two in the process. Cannon threw 91 pitches facing 24 batters in that time, giving up a three-run home run five batters into the contest and a solo shot in the third inning. Sandwiched in between was an RBI double by VCU star Tyler Locklear.
VCU wasn’t done yet. The Rams added on in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings with one run a piece. An RBI double followed up by two solo home runs put them ahead 8-0.
Meanwhile, on the offensive end of things, Georgia simply couldn’t get things going. The Bulldogs hit the ball hard, but it always seemed to be right at a Rams’ defender. And when they did get runners on base, Georgia struggled to do anything with it. The Bulldogs went just 2-of-19 with runners on base and 1-of-13 with runners in scoring position. Twice did they have a runner on third base with less than two outs and neither time did they capitalize on it. In fact, Georgia’s only run on the ball game came without anybody on base as Cole Tate hit a solo shot home run to right field in the bottom of the seventh to make it 8-1.
“We needed to get off a great start, and we didn’t and VCU did,” Scott Stricklin said. “They had the early momentum in their dugout; they were the aggressors, and we couldn’t get a hit with runners in scoring position. When they hit the ball hard, it left the park. When we did, it stayed in, and I thought Ben Anderson hit three out tonight, and they all were caught at the track or at the wall.”
Georgia is back in action on Saturday in the first of two games at Boshamer Stadium, taking on Hofstra, who lost 15-4 to host North Carolina. Should Georgia win, the Dawgs will play the loser of the nightcap between the Tar Heels and VCU on Sunday morning, once again needing to win to keep the season alive and advance into the regional final Sunday night. In order for Georgia to advance out of the regional, it would need to beat the opponent twice in the regional final, meaning that the Bulldogs must win four games in a row or else the season is over.
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