Halfway through the 2015 baseball season, we now know what to expect from the Georgia Bulldogs.
The unexpected.
That notion was reinforced again this past weekend when the Bulldogs – in the throes of injury issues – went on the road to South Carolina and took two of three from the No. 7-ranked Gamecocks to win a series in Columbia for the first time since 1994. It was the fifth SEC road win in the last six for Georgia, which improves to 18-11 overall and 5-4 in the SEC in time for Tuesday night’s home game against arch-rival Georgia Tech.
The Bulldogs’ Friday night victory happened in typically unexpected fashion. UGA pitcher Jared Cheek was behind in the count 3-0 with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth of a tied game. Then the right-hander threw three straight strikes, the side was retired and Georgia went on to win 6-5 in 11 innings. The Bulldogs carried that momentum into Saturday’s game, which it won 4-3, before falling 8-5 on Sunday.
“It was a good weekend for us,” second-year coach Scott Stricklin said. “Your goal is to win every series you play in, but going to South Carolina knowing that it hadn’t been done in 21 years was really, really tough. Obviously, we were able to do that against a tough team in a tough atmosphere and our guys just overcame it.”
Once again, nobody can be certain what to expect from Tuesday’s matchup against Tech. It has been during midweek games that the Bulldogs have most struggled this season. Mercer, for instance, has beaten UGA twice by the combined score of 28-12 this season.
That’s somewhat understandable considering Georgia’s lack of pitching depth. Robert Tyler and David Sosebee, both weekend starters, have been shut down for weeks now with arm soreness. Both pitchers are now throwing on the regular, but remain weeks away from rejoining the rotation. Stricklin is hoping to have one or both back for the April 17 home series versus LSU.
In the meantime, Georgia’s quality midweek pitchers have been moved into the weekends. Freshman left-hander Ryan Avidano (3-1, 7.12 ERA) will get the start tonight against the Yellow Jackets (17-10, 5-7 ACC), who have injury issues of their own.
Tech, which was swept at Louisville this past weekend, will counter with senior lefty Devin Stanton (0-0, 5.56). The Jackets are having to play without Kel Johnson, a freshman right fielder who is hitting .379, leads the ACC in home runs (7) and is in top five in RBI (25).
Tech and Georgia continue to play an annual three-games series spread out over the course of the spring. They play one each on their respective home fields and a third at the Atlanta Braves’ Turner Field (May 12 this year). Tuesday’s game is the first of this year’s series.
The Jackets took two of three last season, something Stricklin, a former Tech assistant, and the Bulldogs haven’t forgotten.
“It’s going to be heavily-contested, I can promise you,” Stricklin said.“You just don’t want to lose this series, that’s the biggest thing. All these kids know each other, obviously the coaches know each other. It’s a huge rivalry and you don’t want to lose to your rival. So it means a lot to our team, our university, our alums. It’s a big series and it’s the same for them. That’s what makes it pretty special.”
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