Timely hits power Georgia past Georgia Tech in series opener
The math is about as simple as it gets in baseball. The inning is over once three outs are recorded, and not a second sooner.
Georgia used that equation to its advantage on Friday night, as the Bulldogs scored all six of their runs with two outs to carry the team to a 6-5 victory over Georgia Tech in the first of a three-game series.
“I feel like when you get those two-out hits, guys come through, crowd gets into it, the dugout’s back into it, you’ve got the momentum going,” starting pitcher Emerson Hancock said. “Our hitters did a really good job of that.”
The majority of the damage was done in the bottom of the fourth, an inning the Bulldogs entered trailing 1-0. First baseman Chaney Rogers stood on first base with two outs when a hard hit grounder from second baseman Buddy Floyd snuck past Yellow Jacket first baseman Drew Compton for a single.
Rogers motored around to third and scored when the next hitter, center fielder Ben Anderson, singled to left field. Floyd then came home on another single from shortstop Cam Shepherd. Just like that, two timely hits turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead.
That advantage then quadrupled in size when left fielder Tucker Bradley launched a home run over the wall in right-center field. Floyd’s ball could have been corralled for the third out, but Compton couldn’t get his glove down in time. Three batters later, Georgia led 5-1.
“When you see stuff like that happen, you always want to capitalize,” Bradley said. “I was just looking for something good to hit. I was thinking more offspeed, but luckily they gave me a fastball over the plate I could handle.”
After trailing when he left the mound following the fourth, Hancock emerged for the fifth sporting a four-run lead. He said his mindset was to fire a shutdown inning, but Tech scored one in the fifth and two in the sixth to pull to within 5-4 after six frames.
While this was unfolding on the field, fifth-year senior Patrick Sullivan rode an exercise bike behind the dugout in an attempt to stay warm. He wanted to be ready should he be called on to pinch-hit.
That moment came in the bottom of the seventh, after Cole and Connor Tate singled and walked with two outs, respectively. Sullivan made the most of his opportunity, rifling a single up the middle to score Cole Tate and push the lead back to two runs.
“There’s a fifth-year senior that’s not starting in a really big game,” head coach Scott Stricklin said. “He could have hung his head, but he was ready the entire game.”
On a night where the wind was blowing out, Sullivan’s lead provided a cushion that made Stricklin much more comfortable in the dugout. That hit proved to be the difference, as a Georgia Tech rally in the ninth came up one run short in the 6-5 defeat. In a game where the Bulldogs did all of their offensive damage with one out remaining, it’s fitting that the margin of victory proved to be just one lone run.
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 9:17 PM.