A 37-hour rain delay appeared to douse Georgia baseball’s red-hot offense in a series loss at No. 23 Alabama.
The No. 6-ranked Bulldogs (40-13, 16-11 SEC) exploded for a 19-3 win Friday before dropping the final two games by scores of 9-3 and 5-4. Game 2 of the three-game series was split by inclement weather, starting Friday night and finishing early Sunday afternoon.
The Crimson Tide (39-13, 15-12) treated its home crowd at Sewell-Thomas Stadium to another strong outing in the third game. Alabama stacked six hits on top of five free passes issued by UGA.
“We didn’t play very well today. Not happy with our guys, and I just told them that,” UGA coach Wes Johnson said. “We’ve got to get a lot better. Like, you can’t come out like that today on a game that is going to decide a series in this league. They’re so hard to get.
“We gave so many things away today — defensively, on the base paths, offensively at the plate.”
Alabama jumped out to a 4-0 lead with two homers in the first couple of innings. Georgia bit back in the third with two runs of its own, starting with a solo home run from true freshman Bryce Clavon.
Clavon lined his first career homer just over the right-field wall to cut the deficit to 4-1. Tre Phelps added a bloop RBI single before the inning ended.
Alabama got its fifth and final run off UGA starter Leighton Finley, who finished with five earned runs allowed on six hits and two walks in 3⅔ innings.
Daniel Jackson cut Georgia‘s deficit to a single run with a two-run homer in the sixth. The designated hitter mashed a changeup into Georgia‘s bullpen behind the right-field wall.
Alabama‘s Carson Ozmer slammed the door in the top of the seventh inning for his second save of the day.
The same Bulldogs bats that hammered eight extra-base hits in Game 1 had just seven total hits in Game 3. Alabama starter Zane Adams set the tone in the seven-inning game, giving up two earned runs on five hits in four innings pitched.
UGA‘s offense entered the weekend averaging 8.6 runs per game. However, in its last three road SEC series before Tuscaloosa, the Bulldogs were averaging 3.9 runs per game.
Georgia bucked that trend hard Friday night but couldn’t keep the momentum going in the last two games, totaling seven runs.
Georgia is hunting a top-eight national seed in the NCAA Tournament, which would clinch UGA home-field advantage through the first two rounds. The tournament bracket will be announced May 26.
The Bulldogs earned a spot last year with 17 SEC wins, but there is no magic number to earn a national seed. There have been seasons when SEC teams with 18 conference wins didn’t get a top-eight spot.
Recent history does show that 19 SEC wins should be enough for a national seed, as every SEC team with at least 19 has earned a national seed since 2018.
Every SEC win increases Georgia‘s chances of having a better resume than competing SEC teams and other national powers, and the Bulldogs have three more games to boost their national seed resume.
They will host Texas A&M in Game 1 at 6 p.m. Thursday at Foley Field.
“We’ve got no midweek this week. We’ll be able to get back, get a couple of really good days of practice in,” Johnson said. “We’re going to get after it really hard and get ready for Texas A&M.”
The Aggies were ranked No. 1 in the preseason before losing their first three SEC series. Texas A&M worked back to a 10-14 conference record last weekend, however the Aggies lost the series to the Tigers, who entered the series 0-24 in SEC play.
The Bulldogs are 27-3 at Foley Field this year and haven’t lost a home series.
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