COLUMBIA, MO.—Adam Sasser tied a school record with three home runs to lead No. 20 Georgia to a 10-6 win over Missouri Thursday at Taylor Stadium.
With their latest win, the Bulldogs are now 31-14 overall and 13-9 in the SEC while the Tigers dropped to 30-16 (9-13 SEC). Sasser is the second Bulldog to hit three home runs in a game this season after senior Keegan McGovern did it on consecutive at-bats in a win over Charlotte in February. Sasser now has seven home runs and 35 RBI on the year as the Bulldogs collected 15 hits Thursday.
Missouri took a 1-0 lead when Brian Sharp led off the bottom of the first with his sixth home run of the season before Sasser (4-for-5, 3 home runs, 6 RBI) tied the game with a two-out, solo shot in the second for his fifth home run of the year. The Bulldogs grabbed a 3-1 lead in the third only to see the Tigers answer with three runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 4-3 lead. Sasser’s grand slam in the fifth, highlighted a five-run outburst to put the Bulldogs in front 8-4.
It marked the fifth grand slam for Georgia this season and first for the junior first baseman. With one out in the seventh, Sasser tied the school record with his third home run of the game to make it 9-4. Tucker Maxwell’s towering popup fell in left field for an RBI-single later in the frame to extend the lead to 10-4.
“That was the first three home run game of my career,” said Sasser. “I was trying to work the count and hang in there to get a good pitch to hit each time up. I wasn’t thinking about hitting a home run except in my last at-bat, and then I got a single. It was good to get a win tonight, but there’s still two games left, and we’re trying to win another SEC series.”
Bulldog senior right-hander Chase Adkins went six innings for the victory, scattering four runs on nine hits with a walk and two strikeouts as he improved to 5-0 on the year. Sophomore Tony Locey took care of the next two innings with five strikeouts, but the Tigers plated two runs on three hits. Missouri left-hander TJ Sikkema, who came in with a 2.68 ERA, surrendered eight runs on 11 hits before being lifted after four innings. He got the loss to fall to 3-5. Georgia’s third baseman/closer Aaron Schunk pitched a scoreless ninth with one strikeout.
“We got an early lead, but then they came right back to go up 4-3 in the third inning and had the momentum but two innings later, we had some more good at-bats and put five on the board and that was big,” said Georgia’s Ike Cousins head baseball coach Scott Stricklin. “Adam Sasser had a great night, and overall we played well and found a way to win. Chase (Adkins) battled out there and gave us six and then Tony (Locey) and Aaron (Schunk) finished it out. They have another good left-hander in (Michael) Plassmeyer going Friday, so we’ll have to be ready.”
McGovern extended his on-base streak to 33 games by going 1-for-4 with a walk. Schunk (2-for-5, 1 RBI) extended his hitting streak to 13 games while sophomore right fielder Tucker Bradley now has an 11-game hitting streak.
The SEC series continues Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET.