Georgia Baseball finding stride with two straight wins over in-state opponent
In the last six days, Georgia Baseball has played five games in five cities against a pair of in-state opponents. After taking two of three from Georgia Tech over the weekend, the Bulldogs beat Georgia Southern on back to back days, scoring a total of 26 runs and moving to 10-3 on the season.
“This was a great way to end a five-game stretch, and I’m pleased with how we played,” Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin said. “The way the freshmen pitched tonight as well a couple of juniors in Collin Caldwell and Will Pearson. It was encouraging to see and glad Will was able to finish the game. Charlie (Condon) is the real deal. I’m really glad he’s on our team. He’s very patient, and he’s mature and strong, and really happy for him too.”
Condon, who was named SEC Co-Player of the Week on Monday, hit a pair of home runs in Wednesday’s 9-4 win in Statesboro. His second scored three and put Georgia up 7-0 in the fourth. It was his second straight multi-RBI game after knocking in four the previous day. In 13 games, Condon leads the team with a .490 batting average, 24 hits, six home runs and 29 RBI.
Condon isn’t the only one swinging it well either. Connor Tate is hitting .480 with six doubles, two home runs and 15 RBI. Parks Harber is tied for the team high in home runs and has 17 RBI. Meanwhile, Mason LaPlante and Corey Collins are each hitting above .300 with Ben Anderson joining Condon, Harber and Tate in the 10+ RBI club.
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Georgia’s bats can only go as far as the pitching will take them though, and as of late, it’s been better. After struggling on opening weekend, Jaden Woods and Liam Sullivan have stepped up to the task of shutting down opponents on Friday and Saturday. Sullivan has a 0.59 ERA in 15.1 innings having struck out 21 including 11 in his 7.0 inning no-hit bid against Princeton. Woods on the other hand has only thrown 12.2 but has more strikeouts (22), including a career-high 11, also against Princeton. Woods went 6.0 innings this past weekend against Georgia Tech throwing 99 pitches. Both he and Sullivan hold 2-0 records in three starts.
As for their help out of the bullpen, Dalton Rhadans and Kyle Greenler have been two of the go-to guys. Transfers from Wofford and Elon respectively, the two have combined to allow just three runs with 24 strikeouts in 17.1 innings of work. Rhadans has not walked a batter either. Others have included the likes of a couple of youngsters including Kolten Smith, Matthew Hoskins and Leighton Finley, all three of whom are true freshmen. Smith made his first career start for Georgia on Wednesday against Georgia Southern and retired nine of his first 10 batters before running into trouble in the fourth. Both Hoskins and Finley also threw in the midweek win as well.
Of course those aren’t all the names, and it’s going to be a team effort if Georgia is going to get the job done when SEC play begins next weekend. As for this weekend though, the final non-conference series of the season, the Bulldogs take on the Buccaneers of Charleston Southern at home. First pitch on Friday is set for 5:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.
