Freshman Blade Tidwell’s SEC debut left a mark on Georgia during Sunday’s rubber game at Foley Field.

The righty scattered four hits over 7 1/3 innings, allowing just one run with two walks and six strikeouts, combining with two other pitchers to beat the Bulldogs, 4-1.

“He was just really good,” assistant coach Scott Daeley said. “Obviously, you would like to get a little more going, but when he’s got that velocity, working ahead in the count— you’ve got to give him a lot of credit.”

Connor Tate had three of Georgia’s five hits.

It was a rough day for starting pitcher Jonathan Cannon, who struggled with base runners throughout his 3-2/3 innings, including a 23-pitch first.

The right-hander was charged with two runs on five hits, with a walk and five strikeouts, before giving way to Jaden Woods with a runner at third and two out in the fourth after reaching his pitch count of 75.

“I thought his stuff was good. It’s just his location wasn’t good early on,” Daeley said. “He’s a guy you hope to get a lot of ground balls early. The velocity was good. Obviously, he was up in the zone, had a couple of hit-by-pitches, and put himself in some jams a couple of times. But he’s got great stuff, and he’ll be better next week. I’m sure of it.”

Wood’s first pitch resulted in a wild pitch, scoring Tennessee’s second run before an RBI single by Drew Gilbert on an 0-2 pitch made the score 3-0.

That would be more than enough for Tidwell.

The only real mistake the Vol righty made was when he gave up a leadoff triple to Ben Anderson in the sixth, before Anderson came home on an RBI groundout by Cole Tate.

“I don’t want to take anything away from him, but I think we could have taken better at-bats, taken some better swings,” Anderson said. “But overall, yeah. He threw well. We just couldn’t hit him.”

Georgia’s bullpen did not allow much, either.

After his wild pitch scored the third run for Tennessee (17-4, 2-1), the freshman from Houston County settled down. Over the next 3-1/3 innings, Woods would allow just the one run on one hit with two walks and two strikeouts.

Nolan Crisp was also impressive with a perfect eight, striking out two. The Vols did score a run off Will Pearson in the ninth, before Collin Caldwell retired three of the four batters he faced, to send the game to the bottom of the ninth with Georgia (14-5, 1-2) down 4-1.

“That’s the best thing about these young guys getting out there. As long as they learn from it and get better, we’ll be in really good shape,” Daeley said. “But he (Woods) really did quicken that game. He was outstanding those last three innings.”

Boxscore

…When Cole Tate singled in the tying and go-ahead runs Saturday against Tennessee, it marked the first runs allowed by Tennessee closer Redmond Walsh in 27 innings.

…Josh McAllister’s second-inning single gave him a streak of 13 straight games reaching base.

…Freshman designated hitter Corey Collins missed his second straight game after appearing to pull a muscle in the back of his right leg Friday.

Georgia hosts Kennesaw State Tuesday afternoon at 5.