Ambushed: Bulldog jump Rocker, pound No. 1 Vanderbilt
There’s an old sports cliché that states “baseball is a funny game.”
Thursday night in Nashville was an example of just how crazy it can be. Georgia jumped on No. 1 Vanderbilt and potential No. 1 draft pick Kumar Rocker Thursday night to pound the Commodores, 14-2.
Seven home runs helped Georgia (19-10, 4-6) do the trick.
Connor Tate and Garrett Blaylock both went deep twice, with Tate, Blaylock, and Riley King going back-to-back-to-back during a five-run ninth. Ben Anderson and Corey Collins also went deep for Georgia. The seven home runs was one shy of the school single-game record of eight set against Georgia College in 1986.
“We were ready to go,” Tate said during the 960 AM post-game show. “We had a little three-game losing streak, and we came out fired up, ready to swing the bat.”
The fact much of the damage came against Rocker surprised many watching the game, televised live on the SEC Network.
Coming in, the former North Oconee standout had allowed just two home runs in 157.2 innings coming into play, and boasted a miniscule ERA of 0.84 with 61 strikeouts in 43 innings.
He gave up three long ones against the Bulldogs.
In the first, Anderson and Cole Tate led off by reaching base before Clark homered over the fence in right for a quick 3-0 lead. In the sixth, Connor Tate led off with a long home run to left, followed by Blaylock, who went deep over the fence in right for the third.
“I’d faced him in high school, and we played travel ball together,” said Connor Tate, who played at Oconee County High while Rocker was at in-state rival North Oconee. “I’ve seen him a lot.”
“Coach (Scott) Daeley did a really great job of preparing these hitters,” head coach Scott Stricklin said during his post-game interview on 960 AM. “They’ve been watching a lot of video the last 48 hours, but now we’ve got our work cut out for us in Jack Leiter. These guys (Vanderbilt) are a really good team. They’re the No. 1 team in the country for a reason, but sometimes you have a really good night, and we had a really good night tonight.”
Rocker (7-1), who struck out 12, recovered with four straight scoreless innings and seemed to be in complete control until the Bulldogs struck for three in the sixth. The big right-hander was also charged for one of Georgia’s three seventh-inning runs.
Vanderbilt fell to 24-4, 8-2 in the SEC.
“The first inning, they landed a couple of punches. You get the single, the walk and the home run,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. “I thought he did a nice job of settling down. But they ambushed him. Their bats looked quick. We didn’t respond very well offensively. Georgia had machine guns; we had squirt guns.”
Georgia once against went with a staff day, with Will Pearson (2-0) taking over for Luke Wagner in the third and getting credit for the win.
Pearson allowed two hits and one walk but was able to strand runners in both the third and the fourth. Michael Polk, Collin Caldwell, Nolan Crisp, and Ben Harris followed. The only run allowed by the group was on a seventh-inning balk by Crisp, before Harris closed out the game with a scoreless 2.1 that included six strikeouts.
“Overall, we did about as well as you can play,” Stricklin said. “We played great defense. Everybody stepped up and did their job.”
Georgia and Vanderbilt resume their series Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Ryan Webb (2-1, 3:14) will pitch for the Bulldogs against Leiter of the Commodores (7-0, 0.43)