Georgia Baseball lost game one of the Arkansas series Thursday night. The series is pivotal because of SEC tournament seeding. 6th ranked Arkansas captured game one from the 13th ranked Georgia Bulldogs 8-6. The Bulldogs are 35-17 on the season and 16-12 in SEC play.
Both offenses scored a pair of runs in the first inning. The Razorbacks scored two unearned runs in the top of the first. Georgia answered with an unearned run of their own with two outs after a Michael Curry double scored Keegan McGovern. Georgia evened the score in the second when Cam Shepherd launched a dinger just inside the left-field foul pole.
The Bulldogs starter, Chase Adkins settled into a groove after the first inning miscues. He went five innings without surrendering an earned run, striking out four. Adam Sasser gave Georgia the lead in the fourth inning with a booming solo home run to right field giving Georgia a 3-2 lead. Later that evening C.J. Smith hit a single that brought home LJ Talley giving the team a two-run edge.
Arkansas’ explosive offense found its footing in the seventh inning against the Bulldogs bullpen striking for six runs. Luke Bonfield’s opposite field two-run home run proved to be the big blow of the seventh as Arkansas opened an 8-4 edge.
Georgia refused to bow down and loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh bringing the tying run to the plate. However, with the tying run to the plate, they only brought home a single run on a Shepherd RBI groundout. Again in the eighth inning, the Bulldogs added a run on an Aaron Schunk RBI scoring Smith. This score trimmed the deficit to a couple runs heading into the final inning.
Razorback closer Matt Cronin recorded the final eight outs on the mound. He picked up his 10th save of the season securing an 8-6 Arkansas win.
“Well certainly giving up a six-spot really cramps what you’re trying to do. We had a 4-2 lead feeling good about ourselves but you know what Adam Goodman came in and gave us two zeros and we were able to creep back in there and got the tying run to the plate. We fought back and that was encouraging. After the six-run inning, we didn’t fold, we didn’t go home, it’s disappointing we didn’t play our best game today. A lot of that has to do with Arkansas, Arkansas is a great club and you have to play one of your best games to beat a team like that and we didn’t do that.”
Next Georgia continues the series with Arkansas on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.