Kennesaw State at Georgia
WHEN: Wednesday, 5 p.m.
WHERE: Foley Field
RECORDS: Georgia 6-1, Kennesaw State 4-2
STARTING PITCHERS: C.J. Smith (0-0, 0.00) vs TBA
Sometimes the stats do lie.
LIU Brooklyn came into Tuesday’s game against Georgia 0-6, with only two batters in its starting lineup hitting over .200. An easy night for the Bulldogs, right? Wrong.
Instead, Georgia’s bats were nowhere to be found, as three LIU pitchers combined on a two-hitter to win, 1-0.
“You can’t take any game for granted,” Georgia third baseman Aaron Schunk said. “You’ve got to come out and play every opponent as hard as you can. You’ve got to play every day and not take any days offs. Today, I just felt something was off.”
Head coach Scott Stricklin didn’t disagree.
After averaging just under 10 runs in their six previous game, Georgia couldn't solve LIU right-hander Jackson Svete, a Georgia native who played his high school ball at Blessed Trinity in Marietta.
Svete blanked the Bulldogs (6-1) on two hits through six innings before coming out of the game.
“Anytime you’re playing somebody, this game can be evened up pretty quick when a pitcher has a good day,” Stricklin said. “Svete was on, he kept us off balance, and they were able pitch out of some very tough situations. I thought we had some poor at-bats, some poor approaches. I don’t want to take anything away from them at all. The bottom line is, pitching and defense is going to win games. They did it today. They pitched and played defense, and they made plays in big situations and we didn’t. We had as many errors as we had hits, and you’re not going to win many when that happens.”
Georgia starter Tim Elliott (0-1) held his own.
The Loganville junior allowed just one hit and one walk with five strikeouts through five innings, although he found himself trailing 1-0 following a fourth-inning error by Riley King who dropped a fly ball in right allowing Gregory Vaughn to reach second with one out.
Elliott retired Andrew Smith but lost the tie when Joe Mercadante ripped a single to right for LIU’s first hit and the unearned run.
“I just made a mistake, I just dropped it,” King said of the miscue. “It’s going to happen. I’ve just got to bounce back from that.”
Svete (1-0), meanwhile, continued to keep the Bulldogs’ bats at bay. The junior held Georgia to two hits through six innings until giving way to Alex Huertas to start the seventh.
Back to back walks by Huertas started the inning for Georgia, which eventually loaded the bases against the third LIU pitcher – Woodstock native Nick Torres - on a one-out walk to Cam Shephard. However, Torres recovered, getting King on a 5-2 fielder’s choice before retiring Schunk on a foul pop that second baseman Rob Griswold made a sliding catch in front of the fence to end the inning.
Georgia would rue the missed opportunity as Torres set the Bulldogs down in order in the eighth before Zac Kristofak tossed a scoreless ninth with a career-tying sixth strikeout as a reliever to give his team one final chance trailing by the one run.
But this wasn’t Georgia’s day.
Mason Meadows would work a one-out walk, Torres rallied to Tucker Maxwell and Shephard on line outs to right to earn the save.
“You turn the page. We’ve got a really good opponent (Kennesaw State) coming here tomorrow, it’s going to be 70 degrees and we should have a great crowd,” Striklin said. “We get to turn the page and that’s the great thing about baseball. We’ve got to put this on the back of our mind, remember it, but move on.”
NOTE: First pitch Wednesday against Kennesaw State is set for 5 p.m. C.J. Smith will be on the mound for the Bulldogs, who travel to Statesboro for a three-game series at Georgia Southern beginning Friday.
