Daily Dawg Thread: April 14, 2025

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Daily Dawg Thread: April 14, 2025

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BSB: Dawg Walk-Off Series from No. 1 Arkansas

Seventh-ranked Georgia defeated No. 1 Arkansas 7-6 behind Henry Hunter’s extra-inning heroics to claim its fourth SEC series win in front of a sellout Foley Field crowd of 3,633 Sunday. 

 

 

 

 

Fast Facts 

  • The victory marks Georgia’s first series win over a No. 1 team since 2021 at Vanderbilt, and the first series win over a No. 1 team at Foley Field since 1993 versus Mississippi State. 
  • After the Razorbacks evened the score in both the ninth and 11th innings to extend the contest, a solo home run by junior Henry Hunter gave the Bulldogs a walk-off victory over top-ranked Arkansas. The blast marked the third walk-off home run by Georgia this year. 
  • Junior Kolby Branch blasted his fourth home run of the week and second of the series to drive in two runs in the second inning and put the Bulldogs up 3-1. 
  • Senior Slate Alford then launched a solo shot in the third to record his 10th home run of the year and extend his on-base streak to 21 games. 
  • Junior Leighton Finley matched a season-high eight strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work, the longest start by a Georgia pitcher this season. 
  • Graduate Brian Zeldin pitched the final 3.1 innings to improve to 2-1 on the year. He held the Razorbacks to just one hit and one run while striking out three. 

Key Quote

Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson

 

 

 

 

On Henry Hunter’s walk-off home run…

“He works hard. It’s a lot for him. Everybody knows about the struggles he’s had against left-handers in the league. Going back to his experience, I know they forget about that and get the 3-1 count, and just a great swing on those. I didn’t think it was that bad of a pitch. The thing I think Henry does, he’s got a short memory. You have to have it in our game. The minute you start thinking you’re really good and you quit working and keep dwelling on the past, good or bad, that’s when you’re going to fall. One of the things Henry does is he always believes he’s going to win, and he did.” 

On coming back to win the series…

“That first game, I thought we played really good for six innings and then we fell to the illusion of competition, and we fell to what’s on the front of their jersey. We fell to a ranking that was by whoever, right? It doesn’t matter. No rankings matter until the season’s over. And that’s what I tell them, ‘If rankings matter, then why do we even play right now?’ So we’re already in the postseason, because you have to go win, and you have to keep going. I thought we did it yesterday. Arkansas is a really, really good team. For us to sit here and battle at home, you need to play these kind of games at home, and it’s good. That’s how you can rebound and not fall victim to getting swept. Our crowd was really good, that helps. You just have to go out and play solid baseball, and we did.” 

Henry Hunter | Sr. | C

On what it means to finish the series with a win…

“We’ve been working as a team. We really wanted this today, especially Wes Johnson, knowing that he’s been there. We just wanted to get back on track. The team knows what we are capable of, and we’ve been working hard as a group to get it right. We want to be as good as we possibly can, and we know the standard we’ve set. The team wants to meet that standard every time we go out there. That one felt good, for sure.” 

On how the team rallied together after Friday night…

“You’ve talked about the ‘Wes Johnson effect’ and what is means to Georgia, but we met as a group earlier this weekend and talked about how much it meant to him after Friday night. We wanted to get back on track and do it for him. He does a lot for us, and he fights his butt of for us. We felt like we owed it to him to go out there and play as hard as we could no matter what the results were.” 

Brian Zeldin | Gr. | RHP

On facing the No. 1-ranked offense in the country…

“It’s a competition between me, the catcher and the other guy. It’s just another guy. It doesn’t matter what jersey they’re wearing. It doesn’t matter what their rank is. It’s our job is to go out there and throw strikes, that’s all it is.” 

Video Highlights

Box Score

Up Next

Georgia (32-6) will return to action Tuesday to face rival Georgia Tech (29-7) in the Spring Classic benefiting Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Truist Park in Atlanta, Ga., with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m.  

SB: UGA Drops Auburn Series with 4-8 Sunday Loss

SOFTBALL | at AUBURN | L, 8-4
   Winning pitcher: Haley Rainey (6-3)
   Losing Pitcher: Lilli Backes (11-7)

Season Record: 27-15, 5-12 SEC

AUBURN, Ala. – The 18th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs dropped Sunday’s series finale to the Auburn Tigers, 8-4.

Auburn tied the game in the bottom of the seventh and won the game on a walk-off grand slam, securing the SEC series.

Georgia is now 27-15 on the season and 5-12 in SEC play.

FAST FACTS

  • Marisa Miller tied a career-best three hits in the game, all singles, and drove in one run.
  • Dallis Goodnight also had a multi-hit game, going 2-for-2 with a walk and a sac bunt.
  • The Bulldog offense scattered 10 hits on Sunday.
  • Randi Roelling pitched six innings in her start. She allowed four runs on four hits and held a shutout into the fifth. She struck out six Auburn batters.
  • Lilli Backes allowed the winning run, suffering the loss.

UP NEXT
Georgia welcomes No. 19 Ole Miss to Athens for its final home SEC series next week. The series begins on Thursday, April 17 at 6 p.m. airing live on SEC Network.

WTEN: No. 1 UGA Falls to No. 2 TAMU

Mell Reasco

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The No. 1 Georgia women’s tennis team (20-3, 13-2 SEC) fell in its regular season finale against No. 2 Texas A&M (23-2, 14-1 SEC), 4-3, at the Mitchell Tennis Center on Sunday.

Fast Facts

  • Georgia opened the afternoon with doubles point. The #74 tandem of Guillermina Grant and Anastasiia Lopata struck first with a 6-1 win over Mia Kupres and Daria Smetannikov on court two.
  • After falling on doubles court three, #5 Dasha Vidmanova and Mell Reasco knocked off No. 38 Mary Stoiana and Lucciana Perez, 6-3, to secure doubles point for Georgia.
  • In singles, #91 Grant regained the lead for the Bulldogs after securing a 6-2, 6-3 win over #90 Smetannikov on court five.
  • #55 Anastasiia Lopata followed up with a win on court two, knocking off #14 Nicole Khirin, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, to take a 3-1 lead in the match before the Aggies secured courts one, three and four to win the match.

Results
Doubles:
1. #5 Dasha Vidmanova/Mell Reasco (UGA) def. No. 38 Mary Stoiana/Lucciana Perez (TAMU), 6-3
2. #74 Guillermina Grant/Anastasiia Lopata (UGA) def. Mia Kupres/Daria Smetannikov (TAMU), 6-1
3. Nicole Khirin/Lexington Reed (TAMU) def. #90 Aysegul Mert/Hayden Mulberry (UGA), 6-2

Singles:
1. #2 Mary Stoiana (TAMU) def. #1 Dasha Vidmanova (UGA), 7-6(2), 7-6(5)
2. #55 Anastasiia Lopata (UGA) def. #14 Nicole Khirin (TAMU), 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
3. #68 Mia Kupres (TAMU) def. Mell Reasco (UGA), 6(4)-7, 6-1, 6-3 
4. #51 Lucciana Perez (TAMU) def. #42 Aysegul Mert (UGA), 7(6(4), 4-6, 7-6(4)
5. #91 Guillermina Grant (UGA) def. #90 Daria Smetannikov (TAMU), 6-2, 6-3
6. Lexington Reed (TAMU) def. Sofia Rojas (UGA), 6-3, 6-3

Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (6,5,2,1,3,4)

Up Next
The No. 1 Bulldogs will shift focus to the 2025 SEC Championships at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn, Ala. Competition will begin Wednesday, April 16 and will conclude on Sunday, April 20. Opponents and match times are TBA.

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Greg is closing in on 15 years writing about and photographing UGA sports. While often wrong and/or out of focus, it has been a long, strange trip full of fun and new friends.