It’s becoming harder to come up with proper plaudits to describe what Emerson Hancock continues to do on the mound for the fifth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.
Head coach Scott Stricklin is just glad he’s on his side.
Thursday night, Hancock was at it again, twirling a three-hitter through eight innings with 11 strikeouts, pitching Georgia (31-8, 11-5) past No. 21 Missouri, 3-0.
“The first couple of innings, I was out there just trying to get a feel for everything,” Hancock said. “I was having trouble with my control, trying to locate my off-speed, but when the guys come in and put up runs like that, you just try to settle in, get in, and get out, just as quickly as you can.”
Hancock (7-2) certainly got better as the game moved along.
The hard-throwing righty finished off the contest by retiring 19 of the last 20 Mizzou batters he faced, before coming out after throwing 105 pitches through eight innings.
Zac Kristofak allowed a leadoff walk to start the ninth, but recovered to retire the final three batters to pick up his fourth save.
Stricklin said he told Hancock to go out and try to finish the game off, but the pitcher indicated he was done.
“We left it up to him, but when he came in, he said ‘I’m good,’” Stricklin said. “If it were in later May, in a regional or Super Regional, he probably goes back out, but he did his job.”
Right fielder Riley King—who drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI double to left—said he’s constantly amazed at what Hancock has been able to do.
“I went up to him after the game and said 'Dude, it’s just a constant cycle. Congratulations, way to throw again,'" King said. “You know what you’re going to get out of him: consistency. You really can’t ask for more.”
Hancock’s stats have almost been too incredible to believe.
Thursday’s effort lowered his ERA to 1.04, his WHIP to 0.70, with 77 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 69 innings.
“He’s just very calming when he’s on the mound. He throws a ton of strikes, and he doesn’t get too emotional, doesn’t get too up or down, and throws four pitches for strikes,” Stricklin said. “He throws two different breaking balls, a changeup—he threw a 3-2 changeup to (Kameron) Misner. When you can do that and still be 95-96 with command of the fastball, it makes hitters uncomfortable. That’s really what he does, he makes hitters uncomfortable.”
Bulldogs batters weren’t feeling too comfortable against Mizzou starter Jacob Cantleberry.
In fact, the junior lefty had a no-hitter going until Tucker Maxwell led off the bottom of the sixth with a drag bunt. That would be the beginning of a successful bottom half of the inning for the Bulldogs, as King followed with a double to left-center field bringing Maxwell home all the way from second for Georgia’s first run.
The Bulldogs weren’t done.
After a single by Aaron Schunk, LJ Talley followed with a sacrifice fly before pinch-hitter John Cable doubled inside the bag at first. His hit brought home Schunk, although the relay throw beat Talley by a couple of steps to keep the score 3-0.
“Tucker’s leadoff bunt, that was huge. Sometimes it takes just one hit to get things going, and that’s what happened,” King said. “Hitting’s contagious—after my double, hits by Schunk and Cable were huge. But without Tucker getting on base, you don’t know what might have happened.”
Although the three runs scored by Georgia don’t qualify as an offensive deluge by any description, for Hancock, it must have felt like an avalanche of offensive support.
In his previous four starts, the Cairo native allowed a total of just six runs, but the Bulldogs managed to win just one: a 7-3 victory over Kentucky back on March 28. Unfortunately, Georgia’s offense struggled in the other three.
Against LSU, Hancock suffered a 1-0 loss before Vanderbilt squeaked out a 3-2 win in 11 innings two weeks ago. During his most recent start last week at Tennessee, the Vols blanked the Bulldogs 2-0.
“I was never worried about the bats. We’ve got some really good hitters who take some really good swings with good approaches, and you saw that tonight. We might not score 10 every game, but we’re going to get some hits when we need to, plus, we play unbelievable defense, so it’s nice.”
NEXT UP: Georgia and Missouri (26-13-1, 7-8-1) continue their series Saturday night at 7 p.m. C.J. Smith (3-2, 2.89) will face Art Joven (3-0, 2.50) of the Tigers.
