Friday night’s SEC opener against Kentucky followed a theme that’s become very familiar to Georgia head coach Wes Johnson when early struggles on the mound put his Bulldogs in an early hole.

But as they’ve done in every game but one of its 21 games, Georgia’s bats responded, scoring 10 unanswered runs over the final four innings to carry the Bulldogs to a 12-6 win.

“It's not something we want to continue to do. We'd like to jump out and get on somebody early. But like Wes always talks about just not panicking and just trusting what we got going on offensively and who we got rolling out of the mound to follow it up and get us outs,” Henry Hunter said. “It’s a long game; giving up three runs early doesn't mean the game's over. We’ve got a veteran team, a group that's been through a lot. We’re battle-tested, and we feel like we just don't panic. We feel right at home when we're down, up, whatever.”

That was definitely true Friday night.

Kentucky (13-3, 0-1) had allowed just three home runs all year. The Bulldogs hit three on Friday night, with Ryland Zaborowski, Hunter, and Robbie Burnett each going deep to propel Georgia (20-1, 1-0) to its 17th straight victory.

Trailing 3-0 and later 6-2, Georgia caught the Wildcats in the fifth on Zaborowski’s 11th home run, a two-run shot that just cleared the fence in right.

Burnett – who earlier pushed the Bulldogs with a single in the sixth – came back in the seventh with a three-run homer, giving Georgia a 12-6 lead.

Hunter’s two-run homer came in the sixth.

“I mean, we've been in that position before,” said Burnett, who went 2 for 3 with three runs scored and four RBI. “You just slow the game down and just keep putting together good at-bats. You do that, good things to happen on offense.”

Reliever DJ Radtke (3-0) was credited with the win, followed by Tyler McLoughi,n who threw a scoreless seventh and eighth before Zach Harris closed out the game with a perfect ninth.

The outcome was just part of Friday’s story, as the Bulldogs potentially lost two of their key players to injury.

In the second, second baseman Ryan Black had to come out of the game after grabbing his hamstring trying to beat out a ground ball.

He was replaced by Trey King.

In the fifth, pitcher Kolten Smith had a 2-2 count on Raphael Pelletier when trainer Zach Adams and Johnso came to the mound. Following a brief conversation, Smith left the game in favor of Radtke, who took just one pitch to get out of the inning, stranding runners at first and second.

“Kolten was cramping in his left hip; it wasn't anything arm-related. He kept telling me he thought he could get through, and I just said, no, it's too big of a moment. We were going to make a change right here,” Johnson said. “I'm waiting to hear on Black, it was his quad a little bit. I think he'll be fine, but I didn't want to take any chances.”

Starting pitcher Charlie Goldstein struggled with his control.

Two straight walks to start the game were followed by a three-run homer by Cole Hage.

Goldstein would last just two more batters. After striking out Tyler Bell, Goldstein was taken out of the game after hitting Dylan Koontz in favor of Justin Byrd.

Johnson said Goldstein may have been frustrated after not getting some close ball-strike calls.

“Yeah, I think it did a little bit, but sometimes when you're doing that, I've done this long enough, you got to make a change and just to get a different visual, maybe to get something going,” Johnson said. “The other side of that is when we did that, that allowed us to, we got Charlie out. We can bring him back, you might see him again this weekend.

Free bases did the Bulldogs no favors in the third.

A walk and a hit-by-pitch by Byrd both came home to score two of Kentucky’s three runs in the fifth.

Bulldog pitchers walked five batters over the first three before Smith settled the game down for Georgia.

With Smith on the mound, Georgia drew within 6-4 with single runs in the third and fourth before leaving the game with runners on first and second with two out.

Radke would retire four of the five batters he faced before McLoughlin took over to start the seventh.

Boxscore

…Nolan McCarthy’s first-inning RBI single extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

…Georgia’s two first-innings runs were just the second and third earned runs allowed by Kentucky starter Nic McCay in 22 innings.

…Friday’s crowd of 3,633 was the second sellout this year. “This crowd's awesome, and we feel their energy behind us,” Burnett said. “It just makes us want to go just a little bit harder.”

…Shortstop Kolby Branch went 2 for 2 and reached base in all five of his plate appearances.

…The two teams resume their series Saturday at 2.