Georgia beats Kentucky 12-6 in SEC to earn 17th straight win
Georgia got it’s SEC slate off to a perfect start with a 12-6 win over Kentucky on Friday night. The win pushes the No. 4-ranked Bulldogs’ record to 20-1 and it’s their 17th straight victory.
DJ Radtke picked up the win in relief, moving his record to 3-0 on the season. Kentucky south paw Jackson Nove takes the loss as the Wildcats gave up three home runs. That matched their season total coming into the game.
Charlie Goldstein got the start for Georgia and only recorded one out. He walked the first two batters of the game before allowing a three-run home run to left fielder Cole Hage. Goldstein struck out the next batter but hit the next guy with a pitch and Wes Johnson decided to make a change.
Justin Byrd came on in relief and got out of the inning with no further damage. Georgia got two of those runs back in the bottom half. Ryan Black walked, Slate Alford grounded out, and Robbie Burnett walked to put runners on first and second with one out. After a Tre Phelps ground out advanced the runners to second and third, former Wildcat Nolan McCarthy delivered a two-run single to shrink the Kentucky lead to 3-2.
Byrd cruised through the top of the second but ran into trouble in the top of the third, giving up three runs. Byrd walked one batter, hit another, and gave up an RBI double before exiting the game. The two runners left on were his responsibility and they scored when Kolten Smith gave up an two-run single, staking the Cats to a 6-2 lead.
The Bulldog bullpen dominated from that point on and the offense went to work. Georgia got one run in the bottom of the third and another in the bottom of the fourth. It tied the game in the sixth when Ryan Zaborowski belted his 11th home run of the season, a two run shot that locked the game up at 6. Zabo was named the SEC co-player of the week on Monday.
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UGA tacked on three more runs in the sixth, starting with a run-scoring single from Burnett. Hunter Henry came to the dish two batters later and sent a two-run shot over the right-field wall to give Georgia a 9-6 lead.
That was enough but the Bulldog bats weren’t finished. Kolby Branch walked to lead off the seventh. Trey King, who came on at second base when Black was injured trying to leg out a double play in the second inning, was hit by pitch. After an Alford strikeout, Burnett stepped to the plate and hammered a 1-0 pitch over the right-center-field wall. The blast plated three runs, giving Georgia a 12-6 lead that held the rest of the way.
The Georgia bullpen tossed 8.2 innings of three-run ball. It didn’t allow a run in the final six frames. The Bulldogs walked seven batters and hit four others while surrendering just five hits. They also induced 11 ground-ball outs and struck out eight.
Kentucky and Georgia will battle it out again on Saturday. First pitch is set for 2 p.m ET and it’ll be available for streaming on SEC Network+.
