Texas left-hander Jared Spencer accomplished something no pitcher has achieved against Georgia this year. Silence the bats of the Bulldogs.
The senior from Michigan allowed just one hit in 7.2 innings with one walk and 11 strikeouts, pitching the No. 5 Longhorns to a 5-1 victory over No. 3 Georgia Friday night.
Georgia’s loss drops the Bulldogs to 29-3, 8-2 in the SEC. Texas improves to 24-4 and 9-1.
“Jared (Spencer) threw the ball well for them as he commanded three pitches in the strike zone and made it tough on us," head coach Wes Johnson said. "We got to do a better job of battling with two strikes. He was 95 to 97 (mph) for over 100 pitches with a fastball, upper-80s slider, and change-up. He didn’t walk us until he got tired.”
Bulldog starter Charlie Goldstein wasn’t doing badly himself. He only allowed a pair of walks in the first three innings before running into trouble in the fourth.
A walk to Ryan Galvin was followed by back-to-back steals by the Longhorn catcher before a double by Kimble Schuessler put Texas up 1-0.
Casey Borba was the next hitter, and he followed with a two-run homer to make the score 3-0.
A two-run homer by Will Gasparino off Matthew Hoskins pushed the lead to 5-0 before Nolan McCarthy finally put Georgia on the board with a solo homer in the seventh. Both home runs came on two-strike pitches.
Reliever Eric Hammond did provide a bright spot with 3.1 innings of one-hit relief with five strikeouts.
“Eric was good. Charlie (Goldstein) and Matthew (Hoskins) have to do a better job of executing some two-strike pitches, which is what they did to us tonight," Johnson said. "We have to foul off more pitches and grind out at-bats longer. Nolan got a couple of hits, got that homer. We’ll bounce back. The score doesn’t carry over, and we get a fresh start tomorrow.”
Georgia did have other opportunities.
The Bulldogs loaded the bases with two out but failed to score. In the 8th, they had runners at first and second with two out but were left stranded.
Georgia and Texas resume their series on Saturday at 3.
