With Emerson Hancock as Georgia’s Game 3 pitcher against Alabama, Scott Stricklin was asked if a part of him felt sorry for the visiting Crimson Tide.

Nah.

“In this league, you never feel sorry for anybody,” Stricklin said after Hancock scattered six hits and allowed just one run as No. 7 Georgia rolled past the Crimson Tide 9-1 Saturday afternoon at Foley Field.

“Coach (Paul) Maineri) told me that my first year when we went down to play LSU, and he said when you get a chance to step on somebody in this league, you do it, because it’s so hard,” Stricklin said. “We felt really good about our chances today with Emerson on the mound, because he’s so good.”

If Alabama needed any convincing before Saturday’s game, that’s no longer true.

Hancock (8-2) who returned to action last week at Auburn after missing the previous two with an injured right lat, shook off a slow start before returning to the form Bulldog fans have become accustomed to seeing.

The sophomore right-hander gave up a run on two hits in the first, but after that, he settled down, scattering four hits (six for the game) through seven innings with zero walks and 10 strikeouts. Hancock’s 10 strikeouts represented the fourth time he’s reached double-digits this year.

In nine of his 12 starts, Hancock has allowed zero or one run to score. His ERA stands at 1.31 with 91 strikeouts in 81.1 innings, while holding opponents to a .155 average.

“My command wasn’t there in the first inning, and it was kind of tough,” Hancock said. “I just tried to settle in more each inning with the bats as hot as they are, get them off the field. Our defense made more great plays. We’re hot.”

That may be the understatement of the season.

In the 36 years since SEC baseball teams started playing 30 conference games, you can count on two fingers the number of times Georgia (42-14, 21-9) ever won as many 20.

With Saturday’s 9-1 win over Alabama, a school-record 21 league victories stands as the new standard.

“We went 18-12 last year, were really excited about it and got a national seed,” Stricklin said. “We’re an absolute lock to get a national seed, we’re 21-9, set a program record. In 1993 we (the SEC) went to 30 games, never won 21 games, and there’s been a lot of good clubs. We got 42 in the regular season as well and it just shows the consistency we’ve had.”

Alabama reached Hancock for a run in the first, before the Bulldogs took the lead in the third on RBI singles from LJ Talley and John Cable.

In the fourth, Patrick Sullivan led off with his third home run, followed biy an RBI single from Aaron Schunk before the Bulldogs put the game away with two runs in the seventh and eighth.

Cable, who went 9 for 15 with seven RBI in the three games, blasted his seventh home run to lead the Bulldogs’ 15-hit attack.

Schunk, Sullivan, and Mason Meadows each had two hits for the Bulldogs, who outscored Alabama (30-26, 7-23) in the three games.

Justin Glover and Adam Goodman closed out the game with each throwing an inning of scoreless relief, with Glover setting Alabama down in order in the eighth.

Boxscore

With South Carolina’s 10-8 win over Mississippi State, that means Georgia will be the No. 3 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament that gets underway Tuesday at the Hoover Met near Birmingham.

The Bulldogs, however, won’t have to play until Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. Central Time against the winner of the Tuesday game between No. 11 seed Florida and the No. 6 seed, which is still to be determined.

Looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament, Georgia is also expected to be selected as one of the 16 Regional hosts, and likely a National Top 8 seed which would allow the Bulldogs to host a Super Regional should they advance that far.

For most of the year, one of the biggest questions surrounding this Georgia team was whether or not the Bulldogs would hit enough to make a deep post-season run.

Based on what was seen against Alabama, the answer is yes.

Along with outscoring the Crimson Tide 30-7 in the three games, Georgia outhit Alabama 47-20.

“I said back in the fall that I wouldn’t be surprised if this team won 56 ball games. No team has ever done it, there’s no team that probably will ever do it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was us that did it,” third baseman Aaron Schunk said. “We just feel really confident out there. Having the bats come alive, the pitching, the defense has been good all year. The components are there. I think we’re making a good push at the right time.”

It would be hard to argue otherwise.

Check out what the middle of Georgia’s lineup has done:

…Schunk, who missed five games with a foot injury, went 8-for-15 in the series with two home runs and seven RBI.

…Talley went 6-for-11 with two RBI.

…Cable went 9-for-15 with a homer and seven RBI.

“They played really well all weekend,” Sullivan said. “John was really unbelievable, and Aaron and LJ have been really good the entire year. We were able to feed off them this weekend for sure.”

…Schunk’s first-inning single extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

…Talley’s RBI single in the third gave him a 10-game hitting streak.

…Georgia came into the series hitting .267. The Bulldogs are now hitting .275.

…With two home runs Saturday, Georgia is one long ball away from matching last year’s total of 64 from last season.

…Saturday’s 11 total strikeouts gives the Bulldogs 542, breaking the old mark of 532 set last year.