A second-straight strong performance from junior Tim Elliott and a record-breaking night on the bases highlighted Georgia’s 11-3 win over Alabama State Tuesday night at a frigid Foley Field.
More on the latter of the two storylines shortly.
We'll start with Elliott (1-1), who tossed six innings of three-hit ball with just one walk and seven strikeouts, tying a career high.
Last Tuesday, the finance major pitched five innings of one-hit ball with six strikeouts against LIU Brooklyn. Unfortunately, his Bulldog teammates failed to score a single run, leaving Elliott on the short end of a 1-0 defeat.
“The confidence is there, all my pitches are locked in, it’s smooth running when I’m out there,” said Elliott, who added that pitching in game where temperatures dropped into the upper-30s, wasn’t easy.
“Y’all can’t see me, but in between innings I’m on a bike the whole time trying to stay warm,” he continued. “The whole time I’m blowing on my hand trying to keep some moisture in there.”
In six career starts, Elliott is now 2-1 with a 1.80 ERA, with just seven walks and 25 strikeouts over 25 innings.
“He’s certainly been better for us this year,” head coach Scott Stricklin said. “His stuff has gotten a lot crisper. I think the biggest thing is just his confidence level has gone up. He’s grown up a little bit and he just feels like he’s better than the hitters.”
Tuesday's other major story was Georgia’s record-breaking night on the base paths, a game that saw the 15th-ranked Bulldogs (10-2) set a new school mark with 10. Georgia’s previous game-high for steals was eight, a number reached four times previously, the last time in 2002.
Georgia – which had just five steals in 11 games coming in - almost blew past that three innings into the contest, stealing seven in the first three innings enroute to taking a 7-1 lead.
Center fielder Tucker Maxwell accounted for four of the steals all by himself, which allowed the Dawsonville native to tie former Bulldog Rodney Bellamy’s record set back in 1980.
“I knew we were going to have a chance to run from our scouting report,” Maxwell said. “To have how every many stolen bases we had as a team, that’s unheard of.”
For those keeping score, Maxwell was one of five Bulldogs with steals, with Riley King (2), LJ Talley (2), Aaron Schunk (1) and Randon Jernigan (1) also getting into the act. For Talley, his two steals matched his career total in three previous years on the team.
Jernigan, meanwhile, was one of two freshmen who was able to pad his stats against the visiting Yellow Jackets (7-5). The Brunswick native came through with his first career four-hit game (4 for 5), beating out three for a trio of infield singles.
It was also a day of firsts for catcher Shane Marshall, who accounted for Georgia’s second run of the day with his first career homer, a solo shot to left in the second as the bottom third. The homer was part of a huge night from the bottom third of the lineup for the Bulldogs’ which went a combined 7-for-10.
The Bulldogs outhit Alabama State 16-5, with John Cable and Talley adding three and two hits, respectively for Georgia, which stranded 19 runners, much to Stricklin’s chagrin.
“That’s the biggest number I’ve seen. I can’t recall that many runners left on base – ever – as a coach and still score 11 runs,” Stricklin said. “That’s what I challenged our guys with. We’ve got to get better with runners in scoring position, but we stole bases, put a lot of pressure on them and scored runs because of that.”
James Williams, Logan Moody and freshman Jack Gowen closed out the game after Elliott, with Williams and Moody giving up single runs to account for the final score.
Georgia won’t have long to rest. The Bulldogs return to action Wednesday with a home game against Jacksonville State. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. C.J. Smith (1-0, 0.00) gets the start.
