Top-Ranked Arkansas Rallies Past Georgia
Georgia Sports Communications/For Immediate Release/May 9, 2021
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.— Top-ranked Arkansas hit a pair of late solo home runs to defeat Georgia 5-3 Sunday in front of a season-high crowd of 7,645 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Georgia (28-18, 11-13 SEC) jumped ahead 3-0 in the third, using three straight hits off Caleb Bolden. Cole Tate ignited the rally followed by Fernando Gonzalez and then Ben Anderson made it 1-0 with an RBI-single. With one out, Arkansas went to its bullpen for Caden Monke. With two outs, Connor Tate lined a two-run single to left for a 3-0 advantage. In the frame, the Tate twins extended their on base streaks and hitting streak to career bests. Connor’s on base streak now stands at 26 with a nine-game hitting streak while Cole’s is at 16 games on base and a seven-game hit streak.
After a one-out single in the bottom of the first, senior left-hander Ryan Webb retired 10 in a row before the Razorbacks got a two-out double in the fourth from Christian Franklin. Webb came back to get Robert Moore to groundout to end the inning. Arkansas made it a one-run contest in the fifth, pushing across two runs on four hits. With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Matt Goodheart tied the game with his 12th home run of the year, a solo shot. In the seventh, Jalen Battles connected for his fourth home run to put the Razorbacks in front 4-3. Coming into the series, the Razorbacks led the nation in home runs and Sunday marked their only two of the series. They would add an insurance run off the Bulldog bullpen in that frame.
Arkansas (36-9, 17-7 SEC) clinched its eighth straight SEC series. Reliever Kevin Kopps (7-0) picked up the win with 4.1 scoreless innings and five strikeouts while Webb fell to 3-4. Kopps leads the nation in ERA and extended his scoreless innings streak to 22.
The Bulldogs will return to SEC action Friday in Gainesville against No. 10 Florida. First pitch will be at 6:32 p.m. and be available on SEC Network+ and can be heard on the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network.
Georgia’s Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Scott Stricklin
On the game and the series…
“I’m proud of our guys. We fought hard and played well against the No. 1 team in the country with the biggest crowds of the season. I think they called it like 7,600 but it sounded like 10,000. We were in every game and won yesterday. To play like we did in this atmosphere, that was good for us. We’ll take Monday off as we’ve still got final exams. Then, we’ll get right back to work Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to Gainesville on Thursday.”