COLUMBIA, Mo. - Missouri right-hander Seth Halvorsen tossed seven innings of one-hit baseball to lead Missouri to a 6-4 win over No. 21 Georgia Friday at Taylor Stadium.
Halvorsen walked five, hit two batters and struck out six to keep the Bulldogs off balance as the Tigers improved to 12-23 overall and 5-11 in the SEC. They got two-run home runs from Cameron Swanger and Tre Morris to highlight the soring off Bulldog starter Ryan Webb who fell to 2-3, allowing five runs on five hits with four walks and seven strikeouts.
“It’s pretty tough to hit a guy that’s 95-to-97 and erratic. He’s got really good stuff. He might be the best arm in the league. He really competed and was very good. We got the tying run on the on deck circle, and we started the ninth down five runs," head coach Scott Stricklin said. "That gave us a little bit of life. It just goes to show every single run is important, and we just didn’t have enough good at bats. We didn’t swing the bats very well today, but we had guys in scoring position because we drew a lot of walks. Bottom line, we didn’t play very well and we got to turn the page and get ready to even it up tomorrow.”
Missouri took a 1-0 lead in the first. Clayton Peterson had a leadoff double, took third on a failed pickoff attempt and scored on a base hit by Andrew Keefer. In the fourth, Torin Montgomery reached on a leadoff walk and then Swanger made it 3-0 with his fourth home run. Georgia got its first hit of the game with two outs in the fifth, and it was an RBI-single by freshman Fernando Gonzalez that scored Garrett Blaylock. In the sixth, the Tigers extended their lead to 5-1 with a two-run blast from Morris, his second of the year. In the seventh, Josh Day made it 6-1 with a two-out run-scoring single.
Georgia (24-13, 7-9 SEC) rallied in the ninth off Konnor Ash when Riley King and Ben Anderson notched base hits and with two outs, junior Josh McAllister smashed a three-run home run. It was his seventh of the season and came on his 22nd birthday to make it 6-4.
Game two of the series will be Saturday at 5:02 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on the SEC Network and can be heard on the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network.
