Friday night’s season-opener against College of Charleston didn’t quite live up to what Scott Stricklin had hoped as the visiting Cougars came into Foley Field and cruised to an easy 9-3 win.
A Foley Field crowd of 2,912 saw the Cougars out-hit the Bulldogs 12-7, as visiting starter Bailey Ober allowed just four hits in 6.2 innings, two earned runs with two walks and eight strikeouts.
“We got outplayed, there’s no question about it,” Stricklin said. “We just gave away too many opportunities, too many free bases and they’re a good team. We knew coming in that we’d have to play well and we didn’t do that.”
For Georgia, newcomer Will Campbell and catcher Michael Curry accounted for most of the Bulldog offense, each collecting two hits on the evening.
The Bulldogs’ five freshmen starters – Tucker Bradley, Cam Shepherd, Aaron Schunk, Will Proctor and Tucker Maxwell – went a combined 2 for 17 at the plate.
Bradley admitted the butterflies were flying.
“Seeing everybody in the stands, it’s a totally different atmosphere as opposed to just looking up and nobody’s there like it is for intrasquads,” Bradley said. “We’ve definitely go to regroup and get back to playing the kind of Georgia baseball that we saw in the fall and again in preseason.”
Although he conceded nerves might have played a small role, Stricklin said before the season he’d never use his team’s youth as an excuse and didn’t after Friday’s game was complete, either.
“I’ve said it a bunch, we won’t use it as a crutch or an excuse,” Stricklin said of his team’s youth. “They’re good players, they’re talented, we’re going to put them out there and they’re going to get better as they go. We expect big things from this group. This game is not going to define us – it’s game one.”
After a solid start to open the game, including a three-strikeout effort the first time through the order, the second and third times through proved more difficult for Bulldog starter Kevin Smith (0-1).
Leading 2-1, the Cougars chased the sophomore lefty with three runs in the fifth, as the College of Charleston strung together four hits in the inning before Blakely Brown ended the inning to keep the score 5-1.
The Cougars weren’t done yet.
In the very next inning, College of Charleston struck for three more, pushing its lead to 8-1. The big hit was a two-run single by Logan McRae.
That proved more than enough for Ober, the Cougars’ 6-foot-8 right-hander. The preseason All-Conference CAA pick limited Georgia to one hit through five innings until the Bulldogs reached him for three, scoring two runs on an RBI double from Campbell and a single by Curry to cut the lead to 8-3.
Ober (1-0) would finally run out steam in the seventh after walking Maxwell to put runners at first and second. But the Bulldogs could not take advantage as Justin Baker came on to get Tucker Bradley out on a short fly to left to end the inning.
Smith, meanwhile, gave up five hits and four runs, with three walks and four strikeouts. He also issued three of the Bulldogs’ six wild pitches on the evening.
“I think we gave up 15 free bases when you take walks, wild pitches, two errors, catcher’s interference,” Strcklin said. “I think that’s 15 free bases, four runs before you even start. You can’t do it. We absolutely have to clean it up. There’s no way you can win a baseball game if you do that. We didn’t deserve to win.”
NOTES: Georgia and the College of Charleston continue their series at 1 p.m. on Saturday before closing the series on Sunday afternoon, also at 1 p.m. Freshman Tony Locey will get the start for the Bulldogs.
