Georgia lives to see another day in NCAA Baseball Tournament
Georgia Baseball lives to see another day. The Bulldogs dominated Hofstra 24-1 on Saturday to stay alive in the NCAA Tournament, advancing to take on the loser of tonight’s matchup between North Carolina and VCU.
The Bulldogs used a big third inning to jump on the Pride. After Chaney Rogers reached base by way of a walk, Josh McAllister hit a home run to left field to put Georgia up 2-0. Ben Anderson followed that up in the next at bat with a solo shot to right before Connor Tate had the biggest scoring play of the day with a three-run home run to bring in Cory Acton, himself and his twin Cole Tate. That made it 6-0.
It didn’t stop there though. A total of 15 straight Bulldogs reached base with all nine of the batters in the lineup crossing home at least once in the inning. Before it was said and done, Georgia led 13-0.
The Bulldogs tacked on five more in the fifth using a Cory Acton home run as well as one from Parks Harber. In the sixth, Cole Wagner, who entered the game as a substitute, homered to right, and in the ninth, Georgia added its seventh long ball of the day – a second from McAllister. He tied a career-high for RBIs with five.
On the mound, Liam Sullivan gave Georgia 7.0 strong innings of work, only allowing sixth hits and one run to cross the plate. He struck out eight while walking one. Coleman Willis and Collin Caldwell each threw an inning to close out the elimination game and preserve pitching for tomorrow when Georgia hopes to play two games in its effort to stay alive and advance out of the regional.
“We needed Liam (Sullivan) to give us a great start, at least six innings, and the big guy gave us seven,” Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin said after the game. “He wanted to go back out there, but at that point, we wanted to get a couple guys some work. That’s the best those guys have looked in a long time and now the rest of the staff is fresh for Sunday and hopefully Monday. It all started on the mound with Liam Sullivan.”
The seven home runs for Georgia falls one shy of the program record for most in a game while the 24 runs tie a program record set in 2009. It’s also the the largest margin of victory for an SEC team in an NCAA Tournament regional.
Tomorrow’s early game, the fifth game of the Chapel Hill Regional, starts at 1:00 p.m. ET at Boshamer Stadium. While Georgia takes on the loser of North Carolina and VCU, the winner will advance to the regional final. The winner of Georgia’s game would advance to the final later that day needing to beat their opponent twice – once Sunday night and another time on Monday.
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