HOOVER, Ala. – The thought was good: Emerson Hancock and Tony Locey combining to pitch Saturday’s SEC semifinal against Ole Miss.
Unfortunately, sometimes the best-laid plans don’t go quite as hoped as the Rebels ended the Bulldogs’ run in the tournament with a 5-3 win.
While the outcome wasn’t what the Bulldogs had hoped for, initially the biggest concern wasn’t the final score, but the health of Hancock, who left in the fourth inning after his right index finger sliced the top of his thumb.
Fortunately, the news there is good.
Head coach Scott Stricklin said after the game that Hancock will not miss any time and will be 100 percent for next week's Athens Regional at Foley Field.
"The index finger cut the knuckle on his thumb and we just couldn't stop the bleeding, so we just made the decision to remove him," Stricklin said. "He's going to be fine."
Despite the loss, Georgia's post-season future was not affected in the slightest.
When bids are announced on Monday, Georgia (44-15) will be a Top 8 national seed for the Regionals, which for the Bulldogs get underway Friday in Athens.
Ole Miss will meet the winner of Saturday’s second game between Vanderbilt and LSU for the tournament championship.
"We felt pretty confident coming into today," third baseman Aaron Schunk said. "The offense wasn't what it needed to be, but we hit a lot of balls hard just right at guys today. But we know what we can do and we'll look to get rolling next week."
The game started well enough for the Bulldogs.
Mason Meadows’ two-run homer to left put Georgia up 2-0 in the second off Rebel sophomore Houston Roth, who was making just his fourth start of the year.
The Rebels would cut the lead to one in the third, using a single by Anthony Servideo, a sacrifice and an RBI groundout by Thomas Dillard before Hancock escaped further trouble, using his 41st pitch to bring the inning to a close.
Hancock’s afternoon would come to a close in the fifth, after the Rebels scored a pair of runs to go up 3-2. But it wasn’t the Ole Miss bats that ultimately knocked him out of the game.
On a 1-2 count to Jacob Adams, Hancock motioned for the trainer to take a look at his right index finger. Team trainer Sean Boland and the head coach tended to the right-hander, before pulling him from the game.
Locey replaced Hancock at that point and took just one pitch to end the fourth, striking out Adams, before Georgia tied the game in the top of the fifth.
A two-out single by Schunk did the trick, bringing home Chaney Rogers, who led off with a walk.
The Rebels would answer. In the inning’s bottom half, a two-run homer by Grae Kessinger put Ole Miss up 5-3 before going on to load the bases with nobody out. But that’s all the runs that would score, as Locey (10-2) struck out the next two batters before getting a ground out to second to send the game to the sixth with the score still 5-3.
Locey would pitch into the seventh for the Bulldogs before being removed in favor of Justin Glover after throwing 62 pitches, sticking to Stricklin’s pitch-count plans.
Unfortunately, Georgia, which managed just five hits, couldn’t come through when needed, stranding six runners, including Schunk at third in the eighth.
The Bulldogs gave themselves a chance in the ninth, putting runners at second and third with one out, but failed to score after Tucker Maxwell struck out and Riley King flew out to right ending the game.
"I thought Ole Miss played an outstanding baseball game and had some guys step up for them on the mound and get it done," Stricklin said. "They played good defensively when they had to, and they had some big at-bats. They got it done. We threw everything we had at them. We threw Emerson Hancock, Tony Locey, and Justin Glover, and couldn't get the offense going."
