HOOVER, Ala. – The spacious confines of the Hoover Met have been a proverbial house of horrors for Georgia’s baseball team.
In their three previous games here at the SEC Tournament, the Bulldogs managed to only score four runs. That trend, unfortunately for Wes Johnson’s squad, continued on Wednesday with Oklahoma, which rode ace pitcher Kyle Witherspoon to a 3-2 win.
“Witherspoon's been really good against us twice, like really good,” Johnson said. “But, you know, good teams find a way to grind it out and get off some better swings than we did. We're going to have to figure that piece out.”
Projected to be a first-round pick in the upcoming Major League Draft, the big right-hander held the Bulldogs to two runs on five hits in 7.2 innings before being pulled following a solo home run by Henry Hunter with two outs in the eighth. Witherspoon did not walk a batter and struck out eight.
In his first appearance against the Bulldogs, Witherspoon allowed just one run on five hits with eight strikeouts.
“We obviously hoped we would come out and stick him a little bit better than we did,” Hunter said. “Tip your cap. But anytime face somebody for a second time, you obviously want to come out and give a better effort than you did the first time. You feel you should have a little bit of an advantage, but he did a great job of just mixing us up.”
Still, the Bulldogs made it close. After Jason Boldin replaced Witherspoon, Georgia almost tied the game.
The first pitch seen by Slate Alford was drilled to left-center field, only to be caught right in front of the wall for the third out and keeping the score 3-2.
“I mean, straight off it, we're playing probably any other night …” Johnson said. “It's a tight ball game, you know, wind’s blowing in a little bit. He hits the ball 103 at the right launch, and the young man catches it in the track. We got off some good swings.”
While Georgia (42-15) would have no doubt opted for a longer stay, the loss is not expected to affect the team’s postseason hosting opportunities.
The Bulldogs will host one of the NCAA’s 16 Regionals. By virtue of their No. 7 strength of schedule and 18-12 regular season record in SEC play, Georgia is still projected to be a Top 8 national seed.
As a national seed, Georgia would have the opportunity to host throughout the Super Regionals. The Bulldogs are 29-4 at Foley Field this year.
“I think our biggest focus is just right now. Tonight’s not the result that we wanted to have happen,” Hunter said. “We’ve just got to go back and look in the mirror and get back to work this week and just really refocus, you know, refocus and get back to what it takes for us to play our best ball down the stretch. I think that's the main focus here.”
Starter TJ Quinn gave Johnson all he could have asked for.
In just his third start of the year, the Ole Miss transfer went pitch-for-pitch with Witherspoon (10-3), holding Oklahoma to just one run over the first four innings before being relieved by Matthew Hoskins to start the fifth.
Give Quinn some credit.
The right-hander escaped a couple of big jams, first in the second when he stranded a runner at third with just one out. In the third, Quinn found himself in a similar predicament. Oklahoma started the fourth with runners at second and third but only scored one time on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1.
A sacrifice fly by Slate Alford in the bottom of the third gave the Bulldogs their first run.
The score stayed that way through the fifth until the Sooners scratched out a pair against Matthew Hoskin (1-2), who set Oklahoma down in order in the fifth.
An RBI groundout by Dayton Tockey was followed by a run-scoring single by Brayden Horton, who entered the afternoon batting only .200.
DJ Radtke, Brian Zeldin, and Zach Harris pitched the final three innings, holding the Sooners scoreless over the final three frames.
