With a huge SEC series at Alabama this weekend, Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin knew he would have to rely on some of his struggling pitchers to navigate Tuesday night’s game against Clemson.
Unfortunately, the results were not there, as Clemson scored four runs over the final four innings to beat the Bulldogs 8-4.
Stricklin hoped to escape Tuesday’s contest and save some of his key hurlers for Tuscaloosa by successfully using some of his pitchers who have struggled in recent weeks.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. Seven of Clemson’s eight runs were charged to Collin Caldwell, Will Pearson, Max DeJong, and Jake Poindexter, four of seven pitchers on the evening for the Bulldogs. Georgia fell to 26-11.
“We didn’t get a shutdown inning when we needed to,” Stricklin said. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to give the ball to the guys who are getting the job done.”
Georgia’s bullpen wasn’t totally to blame for Tuesday’s outcome.
Hitters two through six in the batting order went a combined 0-for-18, with eight strikeouts and stranding four runners with the only RBI coming on a fielder’s choice by Connor Tate.
“The middle of the order, they’ve got to carry you, and we’ve got to get those guys going,” said Stricklin, who confirmed that starter Jonathan Cannon back into the rotation after missing his last two starts with soreness in the back of his forearm.
“He’s ready to go,” Stricklin said of Cannon. “He’s ready to go and Liam Sullivan is off his pitch count, so things are moving in the right direction as far as health goes. Hopefully, we can get some momentum with John Cannon being back in and Sullivan being able to go longer. The weather is going to warm up, and we’re looking forward to that. But the middle of the order has to get going, and we’ve got to find some guys who will go out and put up some zeroes.”
Down 4-0, Georgia tied the game in the fifth, the big hit a bases-clearing triple by Ben Anderson, before a fielder’s choice by Tate brought the Bulldogs even.
But not for long. A pair of two out hits in the sixth put Clemson back up by two, followed in the seventh by the Tigers’ third home run to extend the lead to 7-4.
Garrett Brown received the start, despite struggling in his eight starts. The right-hander-coming off Tommy John surgery-entered play with an 8.86 earned run average, but against the Tigers, showed some positive signs.
The sophomore allowed a second-inning home run to Jonathan French, but that was one of just two hits he gave up before Stricklin pulled him out following a strikeout of leadoff batter Benjamin Blackwell.
“I thought Garrett Brown was very good. He was going to be limited because, if he threw good tonight, we’d need to hold him for the weekend,” Stricklin said. “So, I felt he threw the ball really well. He got some swings and misses with his slider tonight, which is the first time he’s done that this year.”
Replacing Brown was another Bulldog pitcher to have fallen on difficult times: Caldwell, who came in with an ERA of 16.00 in nine innings.
Caldwell induced a double play on his second pitch, but in the third only recorded an out as he was yanked after giving up a three-run homer to Caden Grice to put Clemson up 4-0.
Chandler Marsh muddled through the next 1.2 innings, escaping unscored on despite a trio of walks before Georgia’s bats finally fired up in the fifth.
Anderson’s triple cleared the bases off Billy Barlow, bringing the Bulldog within 4-3. Two batters later, a fielder’s choice by Tate tied the game.
However, Pearson was not able to give Georgia the shutdown inning it needed as the Tigers used back-to-back two-out hits to go back up 6-4.
Max Wagner’s 12th home run, a solo shot off DeJong, pushed the margin to 7-4 in the seventh. Clemson added a run against Poindexter in the eighth to account for the final score.
