After being stymied Sunday by Georgia Tech, Georgia’s bats were back to their booming ways Tuesday night against Georgia Southern at SRP Park in North Augusta.
It’s fortunate they were.
Bulldog pitchers struggled early, but thanks to hitters like Charlie Condon and Parks Harber, Georgia was able to overcome a pair of three-run deficits to cruise past the Eagles 17-11.
“We’re not hanging that one in a museum at all,” head coach Scott Stricklin said during his postgame radio interview. “But anytime they scored, we answered. They scored three in the first inning we scored a run. They score four and we score four. So, that’s the sign of a good team and we scored six of the innings. But the big thing was, every time they scored, we scored as well.”
Harber and Condon drove in four runs each for the Bulldogs (9-3), with Harber’s damage coming on a seventh-inning grand slam to give the Bulldogs a 15-7 cushion.
Georgia Southern (7-5) would score four in the eighth against Luke Wagner and Pace Mercer. Mercer did not record an out before Dalton Rhadans retired six of the next eight batters to secure the victory for Georgia.
The Bulldogs outhit the Eagles 13-11, with Connor Tate going 3 for 4 with two RBI with nine-hole hitter Mason LaPlante going 4 for 5, including his second home run, with two RBI.
Seven different pitchers saw action for the Bulldogs.
Starter Charlie Goldstein and Blake Gillespie both struggled, combining to allow seven runs over the first two innings before Kyle Greenler came in. Greenler (1-0) allowed 3 hits over 2.2 innings with a walk and five strikeouts to earn the win.
Chandler Marsh also gave the Bulldogs a boost, only allowing a walk with five strikeouts in two innings.
Georgia pitchers combined to walk eight with 13 strikeouts.
“We’ve got some guys who are struggling, but it’s like I told them, hey, we love you, but you’ve got to fight through it. They’re all here for a reason, and they’re really talented,” Stricklin said. “We believed them, but they’ve got to believe in themselves. We’re going to need them all.”
Georgia and Georgia Southern meet again Wednesday (6 p.m.) in Statesboro. Freshman Kolten Smith (0-0, 2.70) will start for the Bulldogs.
