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Georgia comes back to beat No. 3 Florida with late inning heroics

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•04/15/23•

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Georgia (8)
Rob Davis / UGA Sports Communications

Georgia Baseball came back in stunning fashion Friday night to take down the No. 3 Florida Gators on the road. Trailing 10-4 going into the eighth inning with just three hits, the Bulldogs tacked on a pair with Charlie Condon’s third home run of the night. Then, in the ninth, Connor Tate tied the game at 10 apiece with a grand slam.

Condon scored the go-ahead run after reaching base for the fourth consecutive plate appearance – this time on an intentional walk – when Parks Harber doubled to center field. Corey Collins and Harber would cross home later in the inning to make it 13-10, and despite being faced with the bases loaded in the bottom half of the inning, Georgia was able to escape with the win.

“The guys have been working hard, and we’ve lost some really tough ones late so we deserved something to go our way,” Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin said. “This is how you turn your season around right there. What we did on Sunday, winning a series against the No. 1 RPI team in 10th-ranked Kentucky, and now we’ve won three in a row in the conference. You can’t say what if or what about what happened before because you can’t change it. That was a great win for us and hopefully that can propel us to winning a series. You want to win every game but you’re trying to win a series on the road. We’ll get after it tomorrow and try to clinch this series.”

Georgia came into the weekend trip to Gainesville with an 18-15 overall record and 3-9 mark in the SEC. The Bulldogs lost their first three SEC series to South Carolina, Auburn and Vanderbilt, getting run ruled twice by the Gamecocks, blowing late leads against the Tigers and struggling completely versus the Commodores. Things didn’t seem to change much in the opening game against Kentucky either, allowing seven runs in the last three innings to lose after leading 4-0 through six. However, as Stricklin said, Georgia was able to win a pair on Sunday in back to back shortened seven-inning contests due to weather for its first series win of the season in league play. While the road doesn’t get any easier from here, taking on teams currently ranked No. 1, No. 5 and No. 16 – not to mention the defending National Champions as well – over the next month, it certainly seems the Bulldogs are playing with momentum.

This weekend’s series continues Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network before Sunday’s finale at 1:00. Charlie Goldstein, who struck out seven in his Sunday start against Kentucky, takes the mound Saturday night after the game was originally listed as a TBA followed by reigning SEC Pitcher of the Week Liam Sullivan on Sunday, looking to build on his 7.0-inning complete game in his last outing.

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