Just over one-third of the way into the SEC portion of their current baseball schedule, there’s a number of reasons fourth-ranked Georgia continues to sit as one of the nation's best teams.
Pitching and defense continue to be two of the bigger ones. Resilience is another.
One night after dropping a heart-breaking 3-2 decision in 11 innings to No. 5 Vanderbilt, the Bulldogs bounced back in grand fashion, using a fourth-inning grand slam from Riley King to take an 8-3 win before a Foley Field crowd of 3,117.
“To me, that shows a lot of fight. It shows we’re not backing down,” King said. “(Friday) was a nail-biter game, anybody could have won. We didn’t but to come back, still have the kind of confidence … it just shows the kind of confidence we have in each other.”
This wasn’t the first time the Bulldogs (26-6, 8-3) have managed to rebound after a tough Friday night loss this season.
Against LSU, Georgia dropped a 1-0 decision on Friday, but came back to beat the Tigers 2-0 on Saturday before winning the series with a 9-7 victory on Sunday.
The Bulldogs hope to repeat the trick against the Commodores (24-7, 7-4), who will send freshman Kumar Rocker – the son of former Georgia and current Tennessee defensive line coach Tracy Rocker – to the mound for Sunday’s finale set to start at noon.
“That was the message that we gave to the guys before the game. We lost a tough one to LSU 1-0, Emerson (Hancock) pitched his rear end off and we come to the ball park and we turned on the momentum,” Georgia coach Scott Stricklin said. “We won on Saturday, won the series on Sunday and grabbed that momentum. That’s what the talk was before the game, just get that momentum back.”
Sophomore C.J. Smith (3-1) made sure the Bulldogs would do just that.
The left-hander was outstanding, tossing a career-high seven innings, scattering three hits with two walks and three strikeouts before Cole Wilcox held the ‘Dores to one run over the final two innings to close out the game.
“Honestly, for me it’s just to go out and throw the best balls I can for as long as I can,” Smith said. “And whatever happens, happens.”
Stricklin said Smith’s effort could not have come at a better time.
“We needed that start out of him. We all know the bullpen is a little bit short. (Justin) Glover and (Zac) Kristofak have thrown so much, (Aaron) Schunk was down after throwing so much last night,” Stricklin said. “We needed six or seven out of C.J. and he was awfully good.”
Want an example?
Vanderbilt’s top three hitters - left-handed Cooper Davis (.368), right-handed Austin Martin (.423) and left-handed JJ Bleday (.347) - make up arguably the top three of any lineup in the SEC. Against Smith, they went a combined 0-for-9.
“Left-handed hitters are used to seeing fastball-breaking ball. C.J. throws a lot of changeups, even to left-handers. He had a lot of ground balls over to Chaney Rogers today,” Stricklin said. “They’re just not used to seeing that left on left changeup. Left-on-left changeups don’t happen very often but C.J. does that. Coach (Sean) Kenny calls it all the time. He just kept them off balance. He was able to get it in on their hands by throwing that change-up.”
It didn’t take the Bulldogs long to get to Vanderbilt starter Patrick Raby, who came into play 5-0 with an ERA of just 1.22.
Georgia reached the senior right-hander for two runs in the first, the first on a solo homer by LJ Tally, before adding one in the third. Then King stepped to the plate in the fourth with the bases loaded and launched a grand slam to put the Bulldogs up 7-1.
The Commodores scratched across a run off Smith in the fifth before the Bulldogs answered with one more in the six for an 8-2 lead.
