A pair of homers in the bottom of the fourth and the combined efforts of 10 Georgia pitchers allowed the Bulldogs to beat Georgia Tech 5-2 on Tuesday in front of an announced crowd of 15,000 at Truist Park.
Tech (29-8) was held to a season-low for runs and managed only three hits in a fourth straight loss to Georgia. The Bulldogs (33-6) struck out nine Yellow Jackets in the win.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s very important,” UGA coach Wes Johnson said on winning baseball’s edition of Clean Old-Fashioned Hate. “But I think with the league we play in, it’s more important to come out and play good baseball, right? They’re a really, really good team. I mean, I don’t wanna misspeak here, but I think maybe they’re at the top of the ACC. So yeah, I mean, for us, it was more about, ‘Hey, we’re going to play a good baseball team, regardless of where they are, who they are, what their jersey is. We’re playing a quality team, and we wanna go out and play good baseball.”
Tech tried to mount a rally late with two outs in the top of the eighth. Alex Hernandez walked with two outs and Caleb Daniel doubled into the gap in left. But Matthew Hoskins got Carson Kerce swinging to end the threat.
Georgia’s Jordan Stephens (S, 3) came in to pitch the ninth and got Tech in order.
“It’s hard when you’re facing one guy every inning. It’s hard to kind of get in a rhythm,” Tech coach Danny Hall said. “Usually if you see a guy twice, you have a chance to make adjustments, but they ran a bunch of arms at us, a bunch of good arms and they kind of got the better of us. We had a few chances with people in scoring position, couldn’t get the hit. That was kind of the story of the game.”
Slate Alford, facing Tech starter Brett Barfield, led off the bottom of the first with an infield hit down the third base line. After a walk to Christian Adams, Ryland Zaborowski lifted a solid single to left making it 1-0.
Robbie Burnett stepped in and took a pitch on the shoulder to load the bases and then Nolan McCarthy walked to make it 2-0. Carson Ballard (1-3) came out of the Tech bullpen and got a double-play ball of the bat of Devin Obee. Hernandez, at second base, threw away the relay on the play, but the umpires came together and ruled interference and awarded Tech the inning-ending double play.
Tech got on the board in the third when William Baker turned on a 2-0 pitch from UGA reliever Justin Byrd and banged it off the façade of the Chop House in right field.
In the fourth, Tech’s John Giesler walked with two outs before pinch-hitter Nathanael Coupet hit a dribbler off pitcher Zach Harris’ glove and reached first safely. Alton Davis (3-0) trotted in to face Baker who lobbed a single over shortstop to score Giesler and tied the game at 2-all.
Obee got that run right back with a one-out homer to right field in the bottom half of the inning.
Henry Hunter followed Obee’s blasted with a double up against the left-field wall and then Kolby Branch belted a two-run shot out to left making it 5-2. Hunter’s homer was Georgia’s 100th as a team this season.
That would be all the Bulldogs needed.
“It’s special for our players. A lot of these guys grew up playing against these guys their whole career, and select ball, and high school,” Johnson added. “So the rivalry is real, and don’t get me wrong, we enjoy it. We enjoy winning, but we gotta be ready to compete in our league. It just doesn’t quit. We played No. 1 and No. 2 the last two weekends. I mean, we got number whoever this week, and number whoever the next week, and so you can’t lose focus. You wanna just come out and play good baseball.”
Georgia heads to Vanderbilt this weekend for a three-game series which is scheduled to begin Thursday. Tech is off to Miami for a three-game set that starts Friday.
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