Georgia baseball walks off with another sweep

Athens, Ga – Georgia baseball continues to stretch its legs, but this weekend they did it with a flair for the dramatic. Georgia added four wins to a nine-game win streak in three days. The Bulldogs earned those wins over Florida Gulf Coast. The games looked very different with similar finishes.

They won two slugfests. On Friday, Georgia earned a 10-9 victory on Foley Field. The Bulldogs got 15 hits as a team. Freshman Dan Jackson hit two big home runs.

Jackson also doubled to add to his runs batted in total on the day. Jackson drove in three runs and had four hits in the weekend opener on Friday.

Georgia started Leighton Finley on the mound. Finley was pulled after two innings in which he allowed five hits, five runs, coupled with four walks.

Jordan Stephens got one out and earned the win for Georgia.

The Bulldogs’ offense was dominant in game one in Saturday’s double-header. Georgia pounded Florida Gulf Coast for a 10-0 win that invoked the run-rule.

Georgia showcased its power getting home runs from Jackson, Robbie Burnett, and Nolan McCarthy. The Bulldogs put up 13 hits as a team. The pitching held Florida Gulf Coast to two hits. Charlie Goldstein started and threw two no-hit innings. He struck out three batters.

Zach Brown got the win after three innings of work. He allowed one hit and struck out one during that outing.

Game two on Saturday looked a lot like Friday’s game with Georgia winning in extra innings, this time 9-8 on a walk-off single from Slate Alford that drove in Jackson. Alford had three hits in the game and drove in two runs. Phelps also added three hits, a run and three RBI.

Sunday

Sunday proved to be a pitcher’s duel won by the Bulldogs 4-3. Neither team scored for the first five innings. Florida Gulf Coast got on the board putting up three runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Georgia battled back with RBIs from Phelps and Alford. The big blow came as Black smacked a two-run homer over the Foley Field scoreboard to drive in the winning runs.

Georgia threw a few different pitchers. JT Quinn got the start. Quinn went two innings, struck out two and didn’t allow a hit. Justin Byrd relieved him with two and 1/3 innings of scoreless work. Byrd struck out four.

The win went to Stephens again.

Georgia’s offense was up and down. They put up 11 hits but multiple double-plays scuttled a few rallies.

“I thought we swung the bats well, we hit a lot of balls,” Georgia head coach Wes Johnson told reporters. “Tip your hat to their guy. He threw some changeups and got us to hit some ground balls that turned into double plays. We needed the balls to go six inches to the left and it’s probably a really different game. That’s the game of baseball. I thought our pitching kept us in it.”

The big picture

Things heat up for Georgia this spring soon. The Bulldogs have five games next week and then a mid-week game the next week before SEC play begins.

Johnson has already begun to line things up and make some decisions about how things will look when things start to take a serious turn in two weeks.

“I think we’re still learning a lot, I scheduled so many games so that we can try and figure out about our team,” Johnson told reporters on Sunday. “We’re getting there.”

Johnson has a few concerns that need to be addressed over the next handful of games.

“You want to play cleaner baseball,” Johnson said. “We’re still walking too many guys on the mound. That will get you in SEC play. We have to cut down on our walks on the mound. We have a feel for what I think I want to do pitching-wise. You can’t really make any changes, you have to reset. We’ve still got five games coming up this week. It’s not like you can go ‘oh, let’s start this guy and put him on Friday’. We’ll have it reset and completely ready to go against Kentucky.”

It is spring break at Georgia this week. The Bulldogs have five games so there is a bit of an opportunity to have some down time and preparation before getting to the ballpark.

“It’s about sleep and hydrating all week,” Stephens said.

The Bulldogs host High Point on Tuesday with first pitch scheduled at 3 p.m. They host Georgia State on Wednesday before a three-game set with Columbia on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.