Georgia Downs 'Cats in Easter Doubleheader to Win Series

Happy Easter, friends. For the first time this season, Kentucky Baseball has failed to come out on top in a series.

After scoring seven unanswered runs to come back and take down the Bulldogs 7-4 on Friday, the ‘Cats fell behind early in both Sunday games and failed to capture that same magic. Georgia, who entered the weekend 1-9 in the SEC, grabbed two wins against the #10 ranked Wildcats. Not great.

With the loss, Kentucky falls to 9-3 in the SEC and now face a conference gauntlet. After Tuesday’s matchup at #18 Louisville, the ‘Cats travel to Baton Rouge for a huge matchup with the #1 ranked team in the country LSU. Following that series, they’ll take on Xavier, Texas A&M (who just dropped out of the rankings) and Louisville at home before traveling to Nashville to face #4 Vanderbilt. These next two weeks are critical for Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament seeding.

Georgia Pitching Dominance

The ‘Dawgs were carried by dominant pitching performances on Sunday from junior LHP Liam Sullivan and redshirt junior LHP Charlie Goldstein. Sullivan rolled over the Wildcat offense in game one, throwing a 119-pitch shutout, allowing just four hits and striking out eight. Get the ice pack ready. Sullivan was really feeling himself, as the junior screamed at the Kentucky dugout following his inning-ending strikeout of Ryan Waldschmidt in the sixth. Both benches earned warnings after the action, but when you’re in the zone, you’re in the zone. Sullivan became the first Georgia pitcher since 2014 to shut out an SEC opponent.

Goldstein wasn’t quite as dominant, but still had a phenomenal outing as well. Goldstein went 5.1 innings, allowing just four hits and two earned runs (which came on his last faced batter of the game). All in all, Sullivan, Goldstein, and relief pitcher Leighton Finley struck out 17 batters and allowed just nine hits. Safe to say it wasn’t Kentucky’s day.

Tough Day to be a Cat

This entire season, the Wildcats have thrived on excellent run support to back their pitching staff. Well, they didn’t receive that today and it hurt Tyler Bosma and Zack Lee. Bosma fared better than Lee, lasting three innings, giving up five hits and two earned runs in game one. Lee, who has been Kentucky’s most efficient starter this season, pitched maybe his worst game of the season. In just three innings of work, Lee gave up four hits, four earned runs, and two home runs. Georgia hit four home runs in game two, two off Lee and two off Seth Chavez before he was helped to the dugout by trainers (no word on his status currently).

Kentucky didn’t score their first run of the day until the sixth inning of game two, thanks to an Émilien Pitre single which allowed Devin Burkes and Jase Felker to score on an error from Georgia SS Sebastian Murillo. Murillo made up for it in the next half inning, knocking a solo home run to increase the Bulldog lead to four. It was just an unhappy Easter Sunday for the Bat ‘Cats.

Georgia takes both games of Sunday’s doubleheader for a huge SEC series victory. Kentucky loses their first series of the season, falling to 27-5.

Final: #10 Kentucky 2 / Georgia 6 ⚾️🐣 pic.twitter.com/le5awhZAcU

— Daniel Hager (@DanielHagerKSR) April 9, 2023

With the Sunday doubleheader loss, Kentucky falls to 27-5 (9-3 SEC) on the season. They will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Louisville for a heated matchup with the #18 ranked Cardinals. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. EST.