The Georgia baseball team opened up SEC play on the road in Baton Rouge on Friday night, and their host was not very kind as the Bulldogs were hammered by LSU 22-9 at Alex Box Stadium.

 
 
The loss was Georgia’s 11th on the year and they currently stand at 8-11 overall and 0-1 in conference play. The game started out promising for the Bulldogs as they quieted the crowd briefly with a four-run outburst in the top of the first. Freshman Tucker Maxwell worked a leadoff walk and raced home on an RBI-double by freshman Cam Shepherd. With two outs, junior Will Campbell smashed a three-run home run out of the stadium to make it 4-0.
 
 
However, the Tigers (14-5, 1-0 SEC) took a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the second and never trailed again. LSU scored two in the first and four in the second. Junior Greg Deichmann’s sacrifice fly put the home team in front and ended senior Andrew Gist’s outing. Overall, Georgia used six pitchers as the Tigers scored in each of the first six innings. LSU entered the game with a 2.95 ERA, and the Bulldogs managed nine runs on 12 hits including getting as close as 9-8 in the fifth. LSU responded with a seven-run outburst in the sixth en route to the victory.
 
 
Campbell finished 3-for-4 with four RBI, freshman Will Proctor collected three hits and Shepherd posted his second career four-hit game to lead the Bulldog hitters. LSU left field Antoine Duplantis set a Tiger single-game record, going 6-for-6 with 7 RBI. LSU reliever Austin Bain (1-0) earned the win while Gist dropped to 0-1. Georgia chased Alex Lange in the fifth after he allowed eight runs on eight hits.
 
 
The series continues Saturday with first pitch slated for 7:30 pm EDT and be available on SEC Network+ and the Bulldog Sports Network from IMG.
 
 
Dawg Tracks
 
Freshmen CF Tucker Maxwell drew a leadoff walk to start the game to extend his on base streak to 14 games and then freshman SS Cam Shepherd drove him in with an RBI-double.
 
 
Junior RF Will Campbell blasted his third home run of the year, a three-run shot out of Alex Box Stadium for a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
 
 
Shepherd went 4-for-5 tonight and over the last eight games is 16-for-37 (.432).
 
 
Nine Bulldogs including seven freshmen made their SEC debut Friday.
 
 
Coach’s Corner Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Scott Stricklin
 
“Our hitters battled all night and when you score eight runs off an SEC Friday night starter, you should have a chance to win the game. Our pitching wasn’t able to stop them. Overall, we need our starting pitching to give us some depth. We had some momentum and then by the second inning, they had the lead already. Still, we battled back to get it to 9-8 in the fifth, and then LSU came right back.”