ATHENS – After an inauspicious start to the opening weekend, the Georgia Bulldogs baseball team rallied to score 20 runs in their next two games to win the first series of the season over Jacksonville State.
The Bulldogs took the rubber game of the three-game set 10-5 on Sunday. But the final game followed a disturbing pattern that developed in the first two contests. That is, the Gamecocks jumped on Georgia’s starting pitching and the Bulldogs had to use their bats to re-establish control.
On Sunday, Georgia fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first as freshman right-hander Blake Gillespie got the start. The Bulldogs eventually would surge ahead 5-1, Gillespie couldn’t hold as the Gamecocks tied it up in the fourth. Junior left-hander Luke Wagner came in to quiet the rally, followed by senior Nolan Crisp, who’d get the third out.
The Bulldogs regained the lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning and Crisp made it stand up with 3.1 innings of shutout relief.
But the trend that was developed during the season’s first weekend will have to change if Georgia is going to get back into NCAA Tournament form this season. The Bulldogs fell behind 5-0, 3-0 and 1-0 in the three games.
“We’ve got to get our starters going,” said Georgia coach Scott Stricklin, who started junior left-handers Jaden Woods and Liam Sullivan in the first two games. “They know that. We’ve challenged them. They’ll need a good week of work and get ready for next weekend.”
Georgia also needs to tighten up defensively. It recorded five errors over the weekend and sits 13th in the SEC in fielding after one week.
The good news is Georgia’s offense was able to come through for the most part. The Bulldogs came into the season expecting to be a high-scoring bunch and that’s what materialized this weekend.
Junior infielder Parks Harber led the way, hitting .500 with a pair of home runs and six RBIs. Shortstop Mason LaPlante hit .455 and redshirt freshman Charlie Condon went 4-for-11 and drove in six runs. The Bulldogs hit .301 as a team.
“Friday night was extremely disappointing for everybody,” Stricklin said of losing the opener 8-5. “We just challenged our players. We’ve got a lot of older guys and we just asked them, ‘what do you want to do; how do you want to go about your business; what kind of team do you want to be?’ … We played much better on Saturday and Sunday. We didn’t play perfect, we’ve got a ways to go, but I like what I saw.”
Princeton comes into town next weekend for a four-game series that will include a doubleheader on Saturday. After a Feb. 28 home game against Presbyterian, the Bulldogs will play Georgia Tech in their annual three-game series that matches the rivals in a pair of home games, then wraps up with a Sunday finale at Coolray Field in Lawrenceville.
LaPlante ought to be exceptionally motivated next weekend. He’s a graduate transfer from Yale.
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