Yes, Georgia has a young team. As with any young squad, sometimes that inexperience can show.
What cannot be questioned, however, is the team’s desire, which the Bulldogs proved Saturday in Nashville by beating Vanderbilt 9-1 to take two of three games from the nation’s top-ranked team.
“This shows we’ve got a lot of fight,” head coach Scott Stricklin told UGASports. “The Tuesday after the loss to Georgia Southern, we didn’t even talk about it. I walked out (after the game) and said the page is turned right now. I told them if they’re scared, don’t even get on the bus.”
“I challenged them for the next days, almost like challenging their manhood, hey, if you’re scared, don’t go. But let me know. I told them if you don’t want to compete, let me know, but were going to go up there and fight with everything we have.”
Obviously, the Bulldogs bought in.
Casinos in Las Vegas would have lost a lot of money.
There were not a lot of people giving the Bulldogs (20-11, 5-7) a chance against a Vanderbilt squad led by pitchers Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, who could be the top two picks in the upcoming Major League Draft.
Not only did Georgia thump Rocker and hand him his first loss on Thursday, 14-2, but Leiter left Friday’s win with a no-decision, before the Bulldogs took the series, outscoring Vanderbilt in the three games, 25-8.
“Baseball’s a crazy game. There’s no clock; that’s the other thing,” Stricklin said. “About the sixth inning, I kept looking up at the scoreboard saying, ‘Man, I wish there was a clock,’ where this thing could run out, but you’ve got to get 27 outs.”
Major props go out to Bulldog starter Jonathan Cannon.
One day after Ryan Webb pitched the game of his life with six innings of one-run ball with 13 strikeouts, Cannon turned in a gem of his own.
The big right-hander pitched seven-innings of five-hit ball, with no walks and nine strikeouts before coming out of the game to start the eighth after throwing 108 pitches.
“Going into this series, I knew I was going to have to use my fastball a lot, and I was really going to have to establish the inside part of the plate early to set up my off-speed later,” Cannon said. “That was where I was getting into trouble early in the year. I wasn’t able to establish that fastball on the inner half, and people were able to get off my slider through the second and third time through the order. That was a big difference for me today.”
Freshman Jaden Woods closed out the game, allowing the Commodores’ lone run in the eighth, before finishing off with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Cannon said having the opportunity to do a two-game scouting report on the Commodores by watching the previous two games certainly helped.
“I’ve enjoyed that all year since being healthy: being able to watch their lineup for two days before I get to go out there,” Cannon said. “It kind of takes a little bit of the preparation out of it instead of watching film, because I get to see them live. I get to see what they’re hitting, what they’re not.”
Offensively, the top five batters in the Bulldogs’ batting order did major damage to Vanderbilt (25-5, 9-3), going a combined 9 for 21 with seven RBIs.
Ben Anderson, Cole Tate, Corey Collins, Garrett Blaylock, and Connor Tate each drove in runs, with cleanup hitter Connor Tate going 3 for 5 with three RBIs, including his third home run of the series.
Tate now has nine home runs.
“Connor Tate and Garrett Blaylock were huge factors for us offensively this weekend,” Stricklin said. “Connor’s a mature kid. He’s a fourth-year player; he’s been in some big spots before, but now this is his opportunity, to be that every day, go-to guy.”
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second on an RBI single by Parks Harber, before Connor Tate’s two-run homer pushed the lead to three.
That would be more than enough for Cannon, who stranded runners at second and third in the fifth.
Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin was thoroughly impressed.
“We just couldn’t center him at any point. You’ve got to give him credit,” Corbin said. “He went three times through everyone. If you get seven innings, and you’re able to go through the lineup three times, that’s a quality SEC start to say the least.”
The Bulldogs put the game away with two runs in the eighth and three more in the top of the ninth, with Anderson, Cole Tate, and Collins each driving in runs.
“We had all the confidence in the world going into this series,” Cannon said. “We knew we could beat them, and we went out there and performed.”
Georgia returns to action Tuesday when the Bulldogs host Georgia State.
