3/30/19 1:30pm

#4 Georgia Secures Series Win vs Kentucky in Dramatic Fashion 

By. Andrew Rodberg

As the #4 Georgia Bulldogs jumped up two spots in the NCAA Rankings, they headed to Lexington, Kentucky to take on the Kentucky Wildcats in their third SEC Series of 2019. In doing so, the Dawgs sent out their ace, Emerson Hancock to the mound on Thursday to take on Kentucky’s  Jimmy Ramsey.

With the Dawgs coming off a bad loss vs Georgia Tech 11-2, they focused on Kentucky and scoring at a high rate. With that being said, the Dawgs striked first with a John Cable home run and didn’t look back. A big 4th and 5th inning helped UGA build a 6-run lead that they wouldn’t give up.

Emerson was Emerson as he pitched yet another gem. The only mistakes he had were solo shots given up in the 3rd and 5th innings. He finished his outing with 7 IP, 3 hits, 2ER, 8 strike-outs on his way to his sixth win as a starting pitcher.

The Dawgs we able to take Game #1, 7-2 to push their SEC record to 6-1.

On Friday night, the Dawgs sent C.J Smith to pitch Game #2. With a 6:30pm start, the Dawgs battled Kentucky’s Zack Thompson and had some difficulty connecting on his pitches. Kentucky was able to open up the scoring with a single in the bottom of the 3rd. The scoring didn’t stop there… the Wildcats were able to get to C.J once more in the 4th as he threw three wild pitches that allowed Kentucky to build a 4-0 lead. Zack Thompson on the other hand continued to mix up his pitches and fool UGA batters on his way to his first complete game. Georgia fell to Kentucky 5-0 courtesy of Zack Thompson who  ended his night with 9 IP, 2 hits and  13 strike-outs.

With inclement weather in the area, the Wildcats and Dawgs agreed to play the rubber match game at 10am opposed to the original 1pm time. As the first pitch got underway, the Dawgs sent Tony Locey to the mound with the hopes of winning their third SEC series. In the first inning, the Dawgs exploded with multiple singles and finished it off with a Connor Tate Grand-Slam to give the Dawgs a 5-0 lead. Kentucky wouldn’t back down though, they slowly chipped away with runs in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. With those runs, the Wildcats cut the 5-run lead to 5-4. The Dawgs responded with another big inning (5th) as they scored 3-runs and built their lead back to 4-runs. With the Dawgs relying on Locey and relief pitcher, Zac Kristofak the Dawgs held onto their lead going into the bottom of the 9th inning. That was until Kentucky was able to jump on Kristofak with a 3-run homer after he gave up a single and hit a batter. Kristofak then gave up a solo shot to allow the Wildcats to tie and force extra innings. In the top of the 10th the Dawgs forced the Wildcats to issue have a walk, single and fall victim to two fielding errors that allowed Georgia to go up 10-8. In the bottom of the 10th Aaron Schunk put the Wildcats away and the Dawgs win the series 10-8.

The Dawgs now with a 23-5 record and 7-1 in the SEC, will travel to Clemson to take on the Tigers on Tuesday April 2nd. Game will start at 6:00pm.

Follow and Like our Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/404thebeat