Although it’s just 10 games into the season, Georgia’s baseball team is proving Scott Stricklin’s preseason prophecy correct. This team can hit, with power to spare.
Georgia Tech needs no convincing.
Saturday at Russ Chandler Stadium, the Bulldogs exploded for six home runs to back another solid start by Liam Sullivan to crush the Yellow Jackets, 16-6.
Georgia (8-2) got two home runs by Charlie Condon (3 for 4, 4 RBI), one from Parks Harber, another from Samford transfer Will David, one from Ben Anderson, and the sixth of the day in the eighth from freshman Josh Tate, which was the first hit of his career.
“We’ve got a lot of it (power),” Stricklin said on his post-game radio show. Charlie Condon, Corey Collins, Parks Harber. Connor Tate (4 of 5) didn’t hit one and he’s four hits. I thought Fernando (Gonzalez) swung the ball well. One through nine, we’ve got some really tough outs.”
Though it’s still early, Georgia’s early home run surge certainly is of note. In 59 games last year, the Bulldogs hit 81 home runs. Ten games into this season, Georgia has already hit 23.
Georgia scored in every inning but the sixth and ninth, outhitting the Yellow Jackets (9-2) 15-7.
Sullivan (2-0) was the grateful benefactor. The junior lefty followed up last week’s seven innings of no-hit ball with a solid 5.1 innings against Georgia Tech, allowing just one run on three hits, two walks, and eight strikeouts.
“Liam Sullivan was really good. The pitch count got up there a little bit, he got to 100 last week. I was expecting a little fight out of him, but he was ready to come out,” Stricklin said. “After five, Coach (Sean) Kenny was talking about making the move. He was in the 80s (pitches). I talked Coach Kenny out of getting him out of there. He got one out, then Kolten Smith was outstanding, came in there and shut things down.”
Smith allowed one run in 1.2 innings with three strikeouts, with Will Pearson tossing a perfect eighth.
Georgia will go for the sweep Sunday when the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets play the third game of the series at Coolray Field. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.
“We’ve got an opportunity to finish, so we’ve got to get greedy,” Stricklin said. “We’ve got a chance to sweep against an arch-rival. We’ve done what we need to do to give ourselves that opportunity, now we’ve just got to finish.”
