University of Georgia Athletics
Increase In Walks A Troubling Trend
April 01, 2015 | Baseball
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
ATHENS, Ga. -- Statistics don't have to mean much of anything, until they do.
As of Wednesday morning, the Vanderbilt baseball team, ranked No. 1 in the country in multiple polls, leads the Southeastern Conference with 148 walks allowed. The Commodores are 23-6 and among the very best teams in college baseball, so clearly all those bases on balls haven't been too debilitating.
On the other hand, the Georgia Bulldogs, who lost 13-6 to rival Georgia Tech on Tuesday night at Foley Field, have been hurt by too many walks. The Yellow Jackets hit the ball hard and took advantage of Georgia's pitching and defensive issues, which included nine walks, among them a pair with the bases loaded, and three errors.
"You give a team 12 free bases, that's what we did, and you're just not going to win," Georgia coach Scott Stricklin said.
On their own, the walks Tuesday -- even against "the enemy," as the late Georgia legend Dan Magill would describe the adversaries from an hour up the road -- aren't cause for alarm. One game doesn't do that, but it hasn't been just one game.
The Bulldog pitching staff started the day with 129 walks for the season, third most in the SEC. Georgia is now up to 138, passing Arkansas (135) for second most behind the Commodores.
Only once in Georgia's past six games have Bulldog pitchers walked fewer than six batters, and that was in the March 24 12-8 loss to Mercer.
Georgia's nine walks (and three errors) Tuesday are the continuation of a trend that has Stricklin concerned. After 30 games, the Bulldogs (18-12, 5-4 SEC) are walking 4.6 batters per game. Add to that UGA's average of an error per game and that's a lot of extra base-runners to have to keep from scoring.
In taking the first two games of last weekend's road series at then-No. 7 South Carolina, Georgia allowed 15 walks in the opener yet managed to win 6-5 in 11 innings. Stricklin remains befuddled by the Dogs' ability to win that game.
"That's got to be some kind of record," he said. "You're not going to win if you do that and we were very fortunate to win this weekend. That's got to get shored up, there's no question about it."
In the second game at South Carolina, a 4-3 UGA win, Georgia pitchers walked six. That was two games, 21 walks and two wins over a top-10 team. But in its past six games the Dogs are 3-3, with 46 bases on balls allowed.
Georgia dual threat Jared Walsh, who had two hits and an RBI at the plate Tuesday and was the starting pitcher in that opening win against the Gamecocks, surrendered nine bases on balls in 5 2/3 innings last Friday. Nine is quite a lot, but perhaps more surprising is that he only gave up four earned runs in the outing.
"There's an old baseball adage, `hitting is contagious,' and I would say the same thing for our pitching staff," said Walsh, a senior that is 3-0 with a 1.87 ERA. "I'm not doing my job setting the tone, with as many walks as I've been throwing. ... We don't need to overcomplicate things -- just let our defense work for us."
Stricklin echoed that thought, saying that Georgia was "pitching away from contact" too much.
"We're walking guys, we're getting behind in the count and that's what's killing us," he said.
Georgia trailed Tech 6-0 heading into the bottom of the second inning. The Dogs needed to make something happen and they did, scoring five runs on five hits, and taking advantage of a pair of Tech walks. The score was now 6-5 and the game had changed completely. For a few minutes, at least.
In the top of the third, a leadoff walk and some two-out errors and walks plated two runs for Tech, which remained in control the rest of the way.
Vanderbilt is walking a lot of batters, but it also is fourth in the SEC with a 2.79 ERA. The Commodores are third in batting at .316 and are generating plenty of runs on offense, so their walks aren't creating a mountain they can't climb.
The Bulldogs don't have that luxury at the moment, not with an ERA that's now 4.06 and a batting average of .276. And guess who's coming to town this weekend for a three-game series?
"Against great teams, you can't give them more opportunities," Stricklin said. "Again, we were able to skate by somehow at South Carolina, but tonight it bit us. We certainly are going to have to play a lot better baseball this weekend if we're going to have a chance to win the series."
First pitch against Vandy is Friday at 7:05 p.m. Georgia will need it and a lot of others to be strikes.
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. Follow him on Twitter @TheFrierson and @ITAHallofFame.