University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Responds Well to 'Punch'
February 21, 2015 | Baseball
By John Frierson
UGA Athletics Staff Writer
ATHENS, Ga. -- It's one thing to knock around an opponent like Eastern Illinois, which the Georgia baseball team throttled last weekend by a combined score of 39-6 in a three-game series. It was the season-opening set for the Bulldogs and a nice confidence-boosting kickoff.
But this weekend's three-game set against a perennial college baseball power in No. 11 Florida State, it had meaning and probative value. Playing against the Seminoles -- picked to win the Atlantic Coast Conference's Atlantic Division and second in the preseason voting for overall champion -- proved a lot of good things to UGA coach Scott Stricklin, his staff and the Bulldogs, and offered insights into areas that need to improve going forward.
This series, which Georgia rallied to take 2-1 thanks to Saturday afternoon's 10-5 come-from-behind win in game 3, was like a professor giving a quiz at the end of the first week of class. The Bulldogs, who a year ago started out 1-6, with road losses of 8-3 and 10-4 at FSU, most assuredly passed.
"I think the biggest thing is that we got challenged in this series," Stricklin said. "Nothing against Eastern Illinois, but we were the better team, and we played well and we didn't really get punched in that series."
Georgia took a big punch Friday, Stricklin said, and responded very, very well.
"That stung and it was tough," he said of Friday's loss. "I think it was tough for everybody to sleep after that loss, and for our guys to come back and play like that, I think that shows that our team has some toughness and they can respond to some adversity."
On Friday, in Georgia's first game since the Eastern Illinois sweep, the Bulldogs came out on the short end of a 7-5 final. UGA lost despite outhitting the Seminoles 11-6 and getting seven strikeouts from starter Robert Tyler in 5 1/3 innings, as well as five strikeouts from Drew Moody in 2 1/3 innings.
Georgia lost that game by walking seven batters, stranding 13 runners and beating itself with two errors and several other mistakes, like getting picked off at first base to end the game.
It was a much cleaner effort by the Bulldogs in the second game of the series, a 4-1 win eary Saturday. Ryan Lawlor started on the mound and allowed a run and four hits in 6 innings, while striking out 10 of the 24 batters he faced. Jared Walsh wielded the big bat for the Bulldogs, blasting a 2-run homer run in the fourth, part of a three-run inning, and then adding an RBI double in the eighth to help seal the win.
Saturday's doubleheader ended with Florida State jumping out to a quick lead on 2-run home run off UGA starter David Sosebee, who had some control problems early but got better as the game progressed. Sosebee pitched 5 innings, allowing two runs on five hits, with eight strikeouts and four walks.
"He got stronger as he went and that's the thing about David, he's going to compete," Stricklin said.
Other than Trevor Kieboom's solo homer to left in the second, Georgia didn't get its offense rolling until the fourth inning. The Dogs scored three in the fourth and fifth innings to take a lead they didn't relinquish. Keegan McGovern drilled a screaming worm burner up the first-base line, driving in two runs. He later scored from third on a passed ball to make it 4-2.
Georgia eventually led 7-2, but the drama wasn't complete. Florida State scored three runs in the seventh to make it 7-5, but the Bulldogs added two in the bottom of the inning and one more in the eighth to seal the win.
"All 27 innings of this series I would say were tight and something was on the line the whole time, so we got a chance play under pressure a lot," said UGA center fielder and leadoff hitter Stephen Wrenn, who had two hits and walked twice in the finale. "We've got young guys that weren't scared and that was phenomenal. We had guys with big at-bats when they counted and that was phenomenal."
Offensively, the Dogs finished the series with 19 runs and 29 hits, in 27 innings. That may pale in comparison to the gaudy 46 hits, 39 runs and six homers UGA cranked out against Eastern Illinois, but the offensive production Georgia had came against much stiffer competition -- the kind the Bulldogs are going to see regularly once SEC play begins. In the same Collegiate Baseball poll that has the Seminoles at No. 11, five SEC teams (No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 4 LSU, No. 5 Florida, No. 18 Mississippi State and No. 20 South Carolina) are in the top 25.
The Bulldogs won't be facing the likes of an FSU or LSU for a while. Up next is Presbyterian at Foley Field on Tuesday, Kennesaw State on Wednesday and a road series at Georgia Southern next weekend.
John Frierson is a staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Hall of Fame at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
