Comeback Bid Falls Short As Auburn Beats Georgia

Saturday, May 1

Athens, Ga.

12:00 p.m.

University of Georgia

Auburn

May 01, 2021 | Baseball

Box Score Game43

ATHENS, GA.—Auburn built an early 7-0 lead and hung on for a 9-7 win over No. 20 Georgia Saturday to claim a Southeastern Conference series at Foley Field.

The Tigers (19-21, 5-16 SEC) struck for three runs on three hits in the first off freshman Luke Wagner and added three more runs, all with two outs, in the second for a 6-0 lead. In the third, the Tigers pushed their advantage to 7-0.

Georgia cut into the deficit in the third with an RBI-double from freshman Fernando Gonzalez (3-for-4) and a run-scoring single by Ben Anderson. In the fourth, Georgia junior Josh McAllister connected for his eighth home run that closed the gap to 7-3. In the sixth, Connor Tate lined a single to left that was initially ruled a catch and overturned on replay as it was trapped. Tate would score on a double from Riley King to bring the Bulldogs to within three at 7-4. In the eighth, Auburn got a couple more two-out runs to make it 9-4. Georgia's comeback in the ninth fell short after it pushed across three two-out runs on four hits for the final. Gonzalez and Cole Tate drove in runs and the last one scored on a wild pitch. The game ended with a pair of Bulldogs in scoring position.

Georgia (27-16, 10-11 SEC) got a fine relief outing from freshman Liam Sullivan who provided a career-high four scoreless innings with five strikeouts to allow the Bulldogs a chance to comeback. Also of note Saturday, Tate and Garrett Blaylock extended their on base streaks to 23 and 20 games, respectively. Wagner allowed six runs on five hits in 1.2 innings to fall to 3-3. Auburn's Trace Bright got the win to even his record to 4-4 while Carson Swilling got a save by pitching the final 3.1 innings.

The Bulldogs just finished a stretch of seven games in nine days, going 3-4. They will be on the road for their next seven contests, heading to top-ranked Arkansas and Florida for SEC weekend series and a midweek game at Georgia Tech. The Bulldogs do not have any midweek games due to final exams. The Bulldogs return to action Friday, May 7 against the Razorbacks. First pitch in Fayetteville is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be available on SEC Network+ and can be heard on the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network.

Georgia's Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Scott Stricklin
On the series loss after winning the opener…
"It is a gut punch. It hurts. You win on Thursday, and you feel pretty good about it. The only negative from Thursday's win was that we had to use Benny Harris for three innings. I think the weekend is a little different. Ryan Webb was on track to throw a complete game on Thursday night. He only had 62 pitches after six innings. When you do not have Jaden [Woods], and you do not have Ben Harris on the back end of the bullpen, it makes the game a little bit different, and it lengthens the game. When you have those guys, you can shorten a game. With Jaden doing what he did last night, he was so good and gave us a chance to win. Benny was so good on Thursday. We had to piece it together today. We did not pitch well enough. We did not swing it well enough. We did not make the plays we needed to. We did not make any errors, but we had some plays that we could have made, but we did not."

POSTGAME VIDEOS

Coach Stricklin

#14 Liam Sullivan | LHP, Fr.
On his performance today…
"I feel good. Really, my main goal is to go out there and calm everything down and try and put up some zeroes and get the team back in the game."

#13 Fernando Gonzalez | C, Fr.
On what he's done to hit the ball as well has he has been…
"I'm just trying to be shorter. Late in the season, the body feels a little more tired. There's just that mentality of if I try to do more than I should, and you're going to start missing the balls, so, just trying to be short and not do too much. I think it's working."