With the game tied and headed to the bottom of the ninth, a scary thought flashed through Scott Stricklin’s mind.
The last time Clemson and Georgia played in Athens back in 2019, the game went 20 innings before the Bulldogs pulled out the win.
Fortunately, that wasn't the case this time, thanks to Parks Harber, whose RBI double in the bottom of the ninth lifted the Bulldogs past the Tigers, 8-7.
“The seventh inning, when they took the lead and we tied it up, I said ‘Oh no,” Stricklin joked. “It crossed my mind, that’s for sure.”
But thanks to Harber, Stricklin and the Bulldogs (24-12) can get a bit more shut-eye than this time two years ago.
With runners at first and second, Harber, who came into the game earlier as a pinch-hitter for Chaney Rogers, lined a one-out double. Center fielder Bryce Teodosio made a diving attempt for it, allowing Buddy Floyd to score the winning run.
“I think having 70-80 at-bats under my belt is huge, especially for situations like that,” said Harber. “I’ve had situations like that before. I’ve succeeded in some and failed. I think the biggest thing is learning from your failures, so being in that situation a few times this year definitely helped.”
Credit a deep Georgia bench for helping the Bulldogs pull out the victory. Fourteen total position players saw action for Georgia, along with seven pitchers.
“Coach (Scott) Daeley mentioned earlier, one through nine, there might be some teams better than us; but I tell you what, there’s not too many teams better than us 1 through 35,” Stricklin said. “With the depth we have on this team, we have a lot of really good players, and you saw that tonight.”
The Bulldogs certainly started the game with a bang.
Catcher Corey Collins launched a two-run home run in the first that TrackMan estimated traveled 441 feet.
Collins promptly started his trot, but glanced up see the ball hit the top of the tree in right field just in front of the fence separating Kudzu Hill from the adjacent property above.
Although runs early on were at a premium, home runs were not.
After Clemson cut the lead to one in the third on a sacrifice fly, first baseman Davis Sharpe tied the game in the fourth with a solo homer to left center.
Josh McAllister was apparently unimpressed.
In the fifth, the Bulldog second baseman, who went 2-for 3 with two RBIs and three runs scored, launched another tape-measure shot, this one measuring at 437 feet well over the fence in left.
Riley King’s (3-for-5) solo home run put Georgia up 4-2 in the sixth, only to have the Tigers plate four in the seventh to grab a two-run lead of their own.
It was not the prettiest of innings for the Bulldogs. A pair of errors and a wild pitch accounted for three of the runs.
Georgia bounced right back.
Cole Tate’s two-run homer tied the game before Darryn Pasqua—the last of seven Bulldog pitchers—came on to pitch the eighth. The right-hander would get through that inning after Clemson cut the lead to one before tying it in the top of the ninth.
Georgia returns to action Friday when the Bulldogs travel to Missouri.
