NASHVILLE—The No. 15 Vanderbilt Commodores evened an SEC series with 17th-ranked Georgia, posting a 5-3 win Friday at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores (18-13, 6-5 SEC) took a 1-0 lead in the first and had a chance for more but freshman Ryan Webb and the Bulldogs got out of the jam. Austin Martin and Alozno Jones hit the first pitches they saw for a single and a double. Then, Webb retired the next three hitters as Vanderbilt got an RBI-groundout by Jayson Gonzalez.
Georgia answered with two runs on two hits in the second as junior LJ Talley tied it with an RBI-groundout and redshirt freshman Mason Meadows made it 2-1 with a two-out, RBI-single off Vanderbilt right-hander Patrick Raby. Freshman Pat DeMarco made it 2-all when he led off the bottom of the second with a home run.
In the fourth, Vanderbilt went up 5-2, scoring three runs on three straight hits. Both teams went to the bullpen to start the fifth as the Commodores brought in right-hander Chandler Day while Georgia turned to sophomore Will Proctor. Day earned the win, tossing five innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts. Proctor tied his career high with four strikeouts in two scoreless innings of relief. Webb got the loss to fall to 1-3, surrendering five runs on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts in four innings. Senior Blake Cairnes took care of the final two frames for the Bulldogs with three strikeouts.
“Vanderbilt had a good plan with some good at bats today and were able to string a few hits together and take a 5-2 lead,” said Georgia’s Ike Cousins head baseball coach Scott Stricklin. “We’ve got to get everybody going in our lineup at the same time. Several guys had a good day at the plate but we had too many strikeouts. Still, we have a chance to win an SEC road series Saturday, and that what you want to do.”
Meadows posted a career-high three-hit game while Bulldog shortstop Cam Shepherd and third baseman Aaron Schunk had two hits apiece as part of a 10-hit attack, but the Bulldogs stranded nine. Georgia’s leading hitter and one of the best in the SEC, senior Keegan McGovern, left the game in the fourth inning after “tweaking his back,” according to Stricklin.
Schunk had a run-scoring single in the ninth, and the Bulldogs brought the tying run to the plate but Day notched his 10th strikeout of the day to end the contest.
The Bulldogs dropped to 23-8 overall and 8-3 in the SEC. The series concludes Saturday with first pitch slated for 3 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+ and be available on the Bulldog Sports Network from IMG.