(Photo by David Barnes)
Georgia vs Texas A&M Baseball: Third-ranked Texas A&M clinched an SEC series against Georgia, winning 15-1 Saturday in front of a Blue Bell crowd of 6,318.
The Aggies (24-7, 6-5 SEC), who lead the league in batting, tallied five home runs on the afternoon as part of a 15-hit attack and ran their home record to 19-1 this season. Georgia dropped to 17-15 overall, 4-7 in the SEC.
Texas A&M built an 8-1 lead by the fifth, chasing junior left-hander Connor Jones after he allowed back-to-back home runs to Boomer White (3-for-4, 3 RBI) and Hunter Melton (2-for-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI) to start that frame. Georgia turned to freshman Shane Tucker, and second baseman Ryne Birk greeted him with the Aggies third straight home run of the inning. In the sixth, Melton added a two-run blast off freshman Blakely Brown, his seventh of the year and a 4-RBI day, for an 11-1 advantage. Nick Banks hit the Aggies fifth home run of the day to start the bottom of the eighth and ignite a four-run outburst.
Aggie right-hander Jace Vines improved to 5-0, pitching eight innings and giving up just one run on eight hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. Jones fell to 4-2, allowing seven runs on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts over four innings.
“Texas A&M was on top of their game today, and we were at the bottom of ours,” Ike Cousins Georgia Baseball coach Scott Stricklin said. “We couldn’t get any runs in when we had guys on base. We need to compete better at the plate. They are playing with a lot of confidence at home with a veteran lineup. Their pitchers are filling up the strike zone and getting ahead in the count. We are falling behind in the count, and you can’t do that against a good hitting team especially with the wind blowing out. That’s how you give up five home runs.”
Georgia ended a stretch of 15.1 scoreless innings when it pushed across a run in the fifth. Freshman LJ Talley led off with a base hit, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a one-out RBI-single by freshman Patrick Sullivan. Bulldog sophomore left fielder Keegan McGovern (2-for-3) extended his on base streak to 23 games with a single in the fourth. Junior Skyler Weber (2-for-4) has a six-game hitting streak after registering a single in the first. Senior shortstop Nick King saw his career-best seven-game hitting streak end after going 0-for-2.
The series concludes Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 2:04 p.m ET, and it will be available on SEC Network+ and the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network from IMG. Georgia will start sophomore left-hander Bo Tucker (3-2, 2.52 ERA) while the Aggies counter with senior right-hander Kyle Simonds (5-1, 3.65 ERA).
“Bo is going to get the start for us Sunday, and I know he will compete and get after it, and we need more guys like that,” Stricklin added.