The UGA baseball team suffered their sixth one-run loss of the season in a 4-3 contest against the Mercer Bears that went to twelve innings on Tuesday night at Foley Field.

 
 
This game was won in the 12th inning after Bears’ second basemen Ryan Hagan earned a walk with one out. First basemen Howard Joe hit a double, which brought Hagan home on a perfectly-timed hit-and-run play.
 
 
This was a well-pitched game from beginning to end by both teams, which saw each starting pitcher only surrender two runs. Drew Moody started off the night on the mound for the Bulldogs, and he was giving the Bears’ hitters fits for the most of the evening. Through 4 innings of work, Moody gave up two runs on 3 hits and 2 walks. This was Moody’s first start of the season, but after a performance like this I fully expect him to earn more starts.
 
 
The Bulldog batters started off the night hot as they got 4 baserunners on in the 1st inning. Two of those runners scored off of a Michael Curry double and that gave the Bulldogs the early lead. Curry brought in all 3 of the Bulldogs’ runs on the night and he has continuously been a big part of their offense this season.
 
 
The bullpen was dominant for the Bulldogs once again and they only surrendered one run on the night. The Bulldogs used 6 arms out of the bullpen and they were Blake Cairnes, Adam Goodman, Blakely Brown, Zac Kristofak, Tucker Bradley, and Shaefer Shepard. These six pitchers combined for 8 innings of work and in those innings they allowed 2 runs on 7 hits and 7 walks. The Bulldogs bullpen has been consistently good all season long and one of the more reliable parts of this team.
 
 
The Stat that cost the Bulldogs
 
The one stat that really ended up costing the Bulldogs was the amount of walks they gave up on the night. The pitching staff as a whole gave up 9 walks and giving up that many free bases is usually not going to lead to a win.
 
 
An encouraging stat from the game
 
The fact that the Bulldogs did not have a single error on the night is definitely an encouraging sign, but I am going with the fact that they held the Bears to only 4 runs as the most encouraging stat. Previous to this game, the Bears had scored the 3rd most runs in the NCAA with 158 and they were averaging a little over 9 runs per game.
 
 
The fact that the Bulldogs only allowed 4 runs in 12 innings is definitely a sign of how good the Bulldogs pitching is and has the potential to be. The Bears also had the 2nd most home runs in the NCAA and the Bulldogs did not let a single ball go over the fence, so overall the pitching did an outstanding job in run prevention.
 
 
The Bulldogs will need to have a short memory though because they take on the Presbyterian Blue Hose at 4 p.m. on March 15th.
 
 
 
 

 
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