Garrett Stallings pitched a complete game five-hit shutout to lead Tennessee to a 3-0 win over second-ranked Georgia Friday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Volunteers (26-10, 6-8 SEC) clinched the SEC series with their national-leading eighth shutout of the year and second straight over the Bulldogs (28-8, 9-5 SEC). This marks Georgia’s first two-game losing streak of the season.
Tennessee took a 1-0 lead in the fourth. After a leadoff walk to Andre Lipcius, he advanced to third on a double by Alerick Soularie and scored on a sacrifice fly by Justin Ammons. Then in the sixth, Zach Daniels led off with a double and scored on a base hit by Lipcius for a 2-0 advantage. At that point, Georgia lifted left-hander C.J. Smith in favor of freshman Cole Wilcox. Ammons notched his second sacrifice fly of the contest to give Tennessee a 3-0 lead.
Stallings needed 102 pitches to go the distance and improve to 6-2. Smith (3-2) allowed three runs on four hits in five innings in the loss. Bulldog freshman Cole Wilcox proved three scoreless innings of relief with four strikeouts.
Georgia’s five hits came from Riley King, Aaron Schunk, LJ Talley, Patrick Sullivan and Chaney Rogers. On Thursday, Georgia collected nine hits but fell 2-0.
Dawg Tracks
-Senior LJ Talley extended his hitting streak to seven games with a leadoff single in the 2nd.
– Junior 3B Aaron Schunk extended his hitting streak to six games with a single in the 6th.
– In their nine losses this year, the Bulldogs have been shut out five times.
Coach’s Corner
Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Scott Stricklin
On the game…
“We’re in an offensive rut right now, and every team goes through it. When you start a season, at some point, you’re going to go through a funk. We really haven’t hit that yet. We’ve played really well and been very consistent all year long. But these last two games, offensively, we haven’t been very good. However, a tip of the cap goes to Tennessee. They’ve played great defense and really pitched. We’re 9-5 in the league, look at the big picture. We’ve had two bad games offensively and need to shake it off and come back Saturday. We’ve pitched good enough to win, defensively, we’ve played pretty well, and now we just need to find a way to get some runs.”
Up Next
Game three of the Tennessee series will be Saturday at 3 p.m. on the SEC Network+ and the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network.
