Another day, another one-run loss for Bulldog baseball team
Another day, another one-run defeat for the Georgia baseball team.
For those counting, Sunday’s 4-3 loss to eighth-ranked Florida lowered the Bulldogs’ mark in one-run games to 5-11, a fact that continues to cause a lot of frustration for skipper Scott Stricklin.
“There’s not a lot of margin for error. Every at-bat is big, every play, every pitch and they were just one-run better than us today,” said Stricklin, whose Bulldogs dropped all three contests to Gators. “I thought we played good this week, but not good enough. When you play a top-10 team you’ve got to play good baseball. I think you’re seeing some signs with this baseball team that we’re getting better, but this league is very unforgiving.”
Florida shortstop Dalton Guthrie didn’t help matters for the Bulldogs.
The junior made three spectacular plays for the Gators, including a pair when he threw out runners from the seat of his pants.
“I think he won the game for us. That was the difference in a one-run game,” Stricklin said. “We’re talking one pitch, one at-bat and he made three plays, three difference-making plays to win that game for them.”
The loss dropped the Bulldogs to 17-28, 5-16 in SEC play. Florida improves to 30-13 and 13-8 in the SEC.
“It’s tough to win those one-run games; eventually we’ll turn the tide,” shortstop Cam Shepherd said. “But right now, it’s tough.”
There's little question about that.
After getting through the first inning unscathed, starter Kevin Smith (2-5) ran into trouble in the second, giving up a single to Nelson Maldonado before JJ Schwarz stepped to the plate and lofted his sixth home run over the right field fence.
A sacrifice fly by Mark Kolozsvary pushed the lead to 3-0 in the third before the Gators chased Smith after the first two batters reached to start the sixth.
Zac Kristofak limited the damage the best he could.
With runners at first and third, the freshman got the first out on a soft liner to short and had a chance to get out of the inning with no runs at all except for the fact that Will Proctor bobbled a ground ball that could have gotten Kristofak out of the inning with a double play.
Although a run scored on the play to make the score 4-0, Kristofak escaped further trouble by getting the next two batters to end the inning.
As for Smith, who was charged with all four of Florida’s runs, scattered six hits with three walks and six strikeouts before coming out of the game.
The Bulldogs would finally get on the board in the eighth, using a two-run double by Shepherd to get on the board before a two-out single by Mitchell Webb cut the lead to 4-3 against Gator starter Jackson Kowar (7-0).
Tucker Maxwell was up next for Georgia and lined a shot at short to Guthrie, who did not initially show that he had the baseball, and ran to second as if to force Webb.
That apparently caused some uncertainty with the umpires, who met on the field before ultimately heading back under the stands to review the play on video before ruling that Guthrie had indeed caught the ball.
After Kristofak stranded two runners in the ninth, the Bulldogs had one final chance with Shephard up and a runner a first, but the freshman flew out to deep right field ending the game. “I thought I hit it solid, but I got it too far in the air,” Shephard said. “It just wasn’t far enough.”
Credit Kristofak for giving the Bulldogs a chance at all. The freshman followed Smith with four innings of three-hit ball with no walks and two strikeouts.
“It’s been tough. I feel we’ve been close every single game, and you can call it whatever want, immaturity, whatever, but in the future, I feel we’re going to win those games,” Kristofak said. “But it’s super frustrating. Friday, to have the lead and take the loss that we did, then the past two days to have opportunities to win, it’s very difficult.”
