Series Recap: Georgia takes down defending champs in opening series of SEC play

Georgia Baseball won a big series this weekend at Foley Field, defeating the Mississippi State Bulldogs two out of three games. Head coach Scott Stricklin said last week he wanted to win one game with pitching and another with hitting before seeing how Sunday plays out That’s exactly what his Bulldogs did, winning with in a shutout on Friday and in a shootout Saturday before dropping the series finale. DawgsHQ was on hand and provides you with your weekend recap.

Friday (Georgia 11, Mississippi State 0)

Jonathan Cannon was dominant, once again, as he threw 8.0 innings of scoreless baseball. Cannon struck out nine batters with no walks and just three hits allowed, managing to keep his pitch count under 100 in the process. Nolan Crisp came on for the final inning and went 1-2-3 securing the series-opening win.

“Jonathan (Cannon) set the tone; he was efficient and threw four pitches for strikes,” said Georgia’s Ike Cousins head baseball coach Scott Stricklin. “Our defense tonight was outstanding. Chaney Rogers made some of the best plays I’ve ever seen at first base. Dwight Allen made a couple great catches in right field. Overall, we played well and got some big hits. Connor (Tate) got us on the board and Ben Anderson gave us some breathing room with his home run and then we put up a crooked number in the eighth. This was a good win, but we know it’s just the beginning because we got 29 more SEC games to play, and it’s a grind.”

Connor Tate homered to center to get the scoring started in the second inning before Chaney Rogers scored on an error in the third and a two-run home run from Ben Anderson in the fifth to make it 4-0. Then a seven-run eighth inning really put things away as Cole Tate, Corey Collins, Connor Tate, Dwight Allen, Parks Harber and Chaney Rogers all crossed home. Anderson ended the game with four RBIs, and Georgia won 11-0.

Saturday (Georgia 12, Mississippi State 11)

The offensive fireworks were out in full force Saturday at Foley Field with both teams getting into double figures. However, Georgia had the last word on a Cole Tate walk-off winner for the 600th career victory for head coach Scott Stricklin. In doing so, Stricklin became one of four other active SEC coaches with at least 600 career wins.

Down 5-1 in the top of the fourth, Georgia got to within on on a two-RBI Corey Collins single to center field before Cole Tate tied it at six with his own RBI single. Then, the Bulldogs would take the 7-6 lead and score Tate on a single by Parks Harber. They weren’t done though. Chaney Rogers cleared the bases with a double to left field that scored Collins, Connor Tate and Harber to make it 10-6.

The ball was flying in the late innings with three combined home runs from the seventh inning on. Mississippi State’s RJ Yeager tied things at 10 with a two-out grand slam in the seventh, Georgia took the lead in the eighth with a home run from Collins quickly followed by a home run from Brad Cumbest to tie it at 11. Finally, Cole Tate capped things off with his walk-off single to center that scored Rogers.

“We just kept fighting back,” Stricklin said. ” I mean both teams, it was a heavyweight fight, both slugging back and forth. I knew it was going to be like that, I said before the game, ‘I called a 9-8 score, with the wind blowing out you just knew it was going to be that kind of day,’ We just kind of outlasted it. It was a challenge no question about it. But everybody stepped up and everybody did their jobs. That is what we ask them to do, ‘Whatever your role is, make sure you embrace it. And when you are asked to do a job, do it,’ I thought our guys stepped up.”

“The crowd was awesome, we knew it was going to be good,” he added. “We could hear them before the game tailgating, Foley Fest, I mean I hope that is something we keep doing. People want to watch great baseball in this town, and this is a great baseball town. I hope we have another one tomorrow, the weather is going to be great. This is a fun team to watch. Win or lose this is a fun team to watch. We are never boring that is for sure.”

Sunday (Mississippi State 20, Georgia 3)

Sunday just wasn’t Georgia’s day as the Bulldogs fell 20-3 in the series finale. After a scoreless first inning from both teams, Georgia took the lead in the second with a double by Cory Acton. That scored Chaney Rogers with ease from third and Fernando Gonzalez from first, making it 2-1. A Rogers single in the next frame brought Connor Tate home to make it 3-1, however Mississippi State would take over from there.

RJ Yeager tied the game with a two-out single to left field. Then a double scored Yeager plus another base runner, making it 5-3 State. The road Dawgs would add another one in the fifth before striking big in the sixth. Hunter Hines hit their second grand slam of the series to put Mississippi State up 10-3 before a Jess Davis double to left scored three more runners. Davis would score on the next batter, Kamren James to make it 14-3. All in all, Mississippi State scored eight runs on six hits with 15 hitters coming to the plate.

Mississippi State added another run in the seventh on a Brad Cumbest home run. Then, in the eighth, State scored five with a hit batsman, a sacrifice fly and a three-run home run from Yeager. That made it 20-3 Mississippi State, the final score from Sunday’s contest.

After the weekend, Georgia’s record on the season is 16-4 with a Tuesday matchup against Georgia State away from home. The two teams will meet at Coolray Field in Lawrenceville, home of the Gwinnett Stripers. The Bulldogs beat Georgia Tech there earlier this season 12-3. Then, it’s back to SEC play next weekend with Georgia taking to Lexington, Kentucky for a matchup against the Wildcats. Kentucky dropped its opening series of the conference slate on the road against Arkansas this weekend.

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