Georgia Baseball takes game two from Vanderbilt 13-7
Georgia Baseball won the second game of its series against Vanderbilt on Saturday, topping the Commodores 13-7 in yet another high scoring affair. The two teams played an 11-9 contest on Friday night, won by the visiting Dores, and will meet again on Sunday to decide the series. It’s certainly an important one for both teams given that both lost series last weekend and are fighting for positioning in the postseason.
The Bulldogs were on the board first with a two-out RBI double from Chaney Rogers to deep center to score Parks Harber in the second. However, Vanderbilt led 4-1 after a big top of the third to respond, highlighted by a two-run home run from Dominic Keegan. Then, Georgia missed out on an opportunity to strike back with the bases loaded and nobody out by getting just one run across to cut into the Vanderbilt lead and make it 4-2.
Fernando Gonzalez’s big day started in the fourth as he hit a solo shot home run. Gonzalez also helped out on defense behind the plate as pitcher Jonathan Cannon controlled the game from the mound, going 7.0 innings and only allowing the four runs in the third. Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin identified Cannon’s effort as a deciding factor in the outcome.
“(Cannon) went back out for the seventh,” Stricklin said. “He was close to that pitch count after the sixth, but he came back in the dugout and said, ‘I’m going back out.’…I thought that’s what won us the game, him going back out for the seventh, putting up a zero and giving us momentum.”
The Bulldogs took that momentum from Cannon’s scoreless seventh inning, stranding a Vanderbilt runner on third with a called strikeout to end the inning, into the bottom half of the frame when they put up eight runs. Following a leadoff walk and pitching change, Connor Tate put Georgia ahead with a two-run home run to left. Former Commodore Garrett Blaylock tacked on another with a two-out RBI single to make it 6-4 before Gonzalez hit his second home run of the game, a three-run shot. Tate returned to the plate once again and once again came through clutch, doubling to left field to score Ben Anderson and Cory Acton, making it 11-4 and tying his career-high five RBIs.
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Georgia would add two more on in the eighth, making it 12 unanswered runs for the Bulldogs, before Vanderbilt hit a pair of home runs in the ninth against Chandler Marsh, who provided 1.2 innings of relief. Max DeJong entered with two outs and got the final one to end the game with a 13-7 score in favor of Georgia.
Game three of the series is set for Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network. Georgia is ranked as high as No. 16 in the country and a consensus top 25 team while Vanderbilt, ranked by some and not by others, is as high as No. 14.
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