Georgia baseball earns key 15th SEC win for NCAA Tournament berth, sweeps Missouri

Missouri had just revived its home crowd with a game-tying sacrifice fly in the eighth inning. Alford silenced Taylor Stadium again with the first pitch he saw, punishing a fastball left over the middle of the plate.

UGA’s No. 9 hitter, Henry Hunter, led the inning off with a seven-pitch walk. Hunter advanced to second on a dropped third strike, bringing Alford to the plate.

Georgia will try to earn a couple more SEC wins next weekend at No. 18 Alabama before closing the regular season against Texas A&M. The Bulldogs are chasing another top-eight national seed like they had in 2024, clinching home-field advantage throughout the regional and super regional rounds.

Georgia’s offense has led the way in most of those SEC wins and entered the weekend leading the country with 113 home runs.

But it was UGA’s starting pitching that stole the show in Columbia, Missouri.

Sunday starter Leighton Finley tamed the Tigers with one earned run on three hits, two walks and eight strikeouts in 7-1/3 innings.

Georgia’s three starters -- Finley, Brian Curley and Kolten Smith -- allowed a combined three earned runs on nine hits and four walks in 19-1/3 innings pitched.

UGA has leaned on its depth as its main pitching strength for much of the season, but only seven relievers saw action this weekend.

Emerging closer Zach Harris earned his second save in as many days. The junior from Cambridge High School is expected to be one of UGA’s top options at closer late in the season.

“You saw what he can do with the changeup right there, you know, and he can go right-on-right with that, which is just an additional weapon,” UGA coach Wes Johnson said. “Guys can’t sit up there and make him a two-pitch guy. When you have more than two pitches coming back on back-to-back days and it’s still up to 97 mph today, it makes it tough on guys.

“I’ve been telling people, I think the bullpen is really rounding in.”

The starting pitching stepped up at the right time as Georgia’s offense struggled more than expected. The Tigers entered the weekend with the SEC’s worst team ERA (9.63), significantly higher than the rest of the league.

Georgia’s dominant offense struggled to find its footing, especially early in games. The Bulldogs totaled just six hits through the first four innings of every game.

UGA hammered the Tigers late in game one for a 9-2 win that was close for most of the night. Then the Bulldogs had only four hits on Saturday, taking advantage of Missouri’s seven walks and three hit-by-pitches.

That set up another weak outing on Sunday. Georgia did improve with nine hits but was 3 for 16 with runners in scoring position.

Georgia scored its first two runs in the fifth inning. UGA’s top home run hitter, Robbie Burnett, split the infield with runners on second and third for a 2-1 lead.

It wasn’t the prettiest sweep of Georgia’s season, but the Bulldogs handled business against the Tigers, who fell to 0-24 in SEC play.

“The guys didn’t even want to shower,” Johnson said. “They were like, ‘Let’s get on this plane, let’s get out of here, man.’”

UGA earned its third sweep of the season and its sixth series win.

Johnson said before the series he knew the Bulldogs needed to reach 15 wins. He also added he didn’t mention it to the team, keeping the focus on the day-to-day level.

Johnson has repeatedly called it ‘respecting the game,’ explaining that overlooking a team like the Tigers could lead to embarrassing losses. Johnson echoed a similar message in his postgame radio show after winning the series Saturday night.

“I told our guys we haven’t done anything,” he said on Saturday. “Tomorrow is another day, nobody cares, these guys are going to come out fighting again tomorrow. They’re going to fight you.”

Johnson and the Bulldogs will take the midweek off to fully focus on the Crimson Tide. A series win at Alabama would mark 17 SEC wins, which is how many Georgia had last season when they got the No. 7 national seed.

UGA will also try to win its third SEC road series, something it hasn’t done since 2019.

Georgia moved into a tie for third place in the SEC standings with the win and LSU’s loss to Texas A&M. A top-four finish in the SEC would give the Bulldogs a bye through the first two rounds of the SEC Tournament.

SEC Baseball Standings

*denotes teams not finished playing this weekend