The UGA baseball team’s opening game against Xavier, which saw the Bulldogs trailing the Musketeers 8-4 through 6 and 2/3 innings was not able to come to a conclusion because of rain on Tuesday evening, but it will be completed before their second and final game of the series later on this afternoon.
The Bulldogs have been much better in recent games about not giving up free bases, but they took a step back in this game. Through the first 6 and 2/3 innings, the Bulldogs gave up 6 walks and also had 3 errors. These mistakes ended up being costly as the Bulldogs ended up giving up 8 runs during the game and 5 of those runs were unearned. The Bulldogs will have to limit their mistakes in the remainder of the game if they hope to mount a comeback.
The one thing that the Bulldogs did have going in this game was their offense. The Bulldogs scored 4 runs on eight hits and also earned some free bases of their own during the portion of the game that was played. This offensive outburst is just what the Bulldogs slumping offense needed and if they can continue to thrive offensively and have the level of pitching they have had in the few games prior to this game, then they should begin to earn more wins.
The star of the first seven innings has to be freshman shortstop Cam Shepherd, who had a breakout performance offensively. Shepherd brought in all four of the Bulldogs runs and he was perfect on the night at the plate. He also hit his first career home run in the first inning of the game to give the Bulldogs an early lead. Shepherd is the type of player that the Bulldogs have been waiting on to break out and if he can continue to have a hot bat then he should play a huge role in the Bulldogs offense moving forward.
Georgia will finish up game one of their two-game series against Xavier at 4 p.m. this afternoon. The first game will start where it was suspended and the Bulldogs will look to come back from their 8-4 deficit. The two teams will finish off the two-game series following the make-up game. First pitch for game two is scheduled for 6 p.m.