After getting roughed up during last week’s midweek start against Kennesaw State, Tim Elliott's effort Tuesday against Wofford was more to his liking.
“I had a little tough last game, but I had to wipe it clean, come out here and throw strikes,” said Elliott, who tossed six shutout innings of a combined two-hitter to lead Georgia to a 5-0 win.
“You get early strikes you get outs,” Elliott said. “I was pounding the inside corner, pounding the outside corner and then took them off with my off-speed. I can keep throwing the fastball, and hey, it worked.”
Elliott’s effort wasn’t the only story from the game.
The victory pushed Georgia’s non-conference mark to 7-1, the best start in Scott Stricklin’s five years as head coach.
“This is just part of the process,” shortstop Cam Shepherd said. “I just feel like we’ve got so much more confidence than we did last year. No matter how the inning before goes, we’re going to go out and do our best and it’s showed. We’re putting up a lot of hits. Things are going good.”
Back to Elliott.
The start – which was also the second of the sophomore’s career – considerably more efficient than Wednesday’s effort against the Owls which saw Elliott charged with four runs in just 2.1 innings.
In six innings, Elliott allowed just one hit, walked one and struck out seven before giving way to freshman left-hander Ryan Webb who retired all six batters he faced.
For Stricklin, Elliott’s effort came as no surprise.
Elliott enjoyed a solid fall and followed it up with an even better spring, and almost won a job as one of the three weekend starters outright.
Tuesday night’s showing against Wofford (3-5) was a perfect example of why.
“I thought he was really good and we needed that,” Stricklin said. “We’ve got seven games in the next eight days so we needed our starting pitchers during this stretch to give us good outings. We were hoping for four or five and he gave us six. (Elliott) pitched with good tempo, he pitched with great confidence and gave us a chance to win.”
Georgia got on the board first in the third, scoring three times on doubles by Keegan McGovern, Shepherd and Aaron Schunk.
That turned out to be all that Elliott (1-0) would need.
The former Loganville star allowed only three base runners through five innings on hit, walk and hit-by-pitch, and twice enticed double plays in the fourth and fifth to erase two of the three.
He followed that with a perfect sixth before coming out of the game after throwing just shy of 90 pitches. Webb followed with two perfect innings before C.J. Smith closed out the game, giving one hit in a scoreless ninth.
Georgia tacked on two more runs in the eighth, using a textbook sacrifice by Trey Logan to set up pinch-hitter Mitchell Webb’s two-run double to account for the final score.
Shepherd led the Bulldogs’ 11-hit effort by going 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles, with McGovern, Schunk and Tucker Maxwell going 2-for-4, 2-for-4 and 2-for-4, respectively.
NOTES: Georgia returns to action Wednesday with a final game of its homestand against Georgia State before hitting the road for five games against College of Charleston (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), Charleston Southern (Monday) and The Citadel (Tuesday).