Georgia Baseball weekly recap: Dawgs drop 2 against Florida to close out regular season play

Georgia finishes the regular season with a 39-14 record following series against UF

The Georgia Bulldogs completed their impressive regular season this past Saturday in a tough 11-19 loss against the Florida Gators. The series kicked off this past Thursday at Foley Field as the Dawgs sent out Kolten Smith for the game one start on the mound. Georgia would get off to a fast start offensively in game one as the Dawgs put up four total runs in the first two innings. Three of those four runs came from the bats of Paul Toetz and Dillon Carter as both guys crushed homers to give the Dawgs the 4-0 lead going into the third inning.

The Gators wouldn’t take long to respond with some offense of their own though as Florida’s lineup hit two home runs through the third and fourth inning to bring things closer at 4-2. The Dawgs’ offense would get things going once again in the bottom of fifth as Slate Alford brought in Charlie Condon on a fielder’s choice to stretch Georgia’s lead to 5-2. Georgia would go on to add two mores run in the inning as Paul Toetz scored Tre Phelps on a RBI single into Left Field to give the Dawgs’ a 6-2 lead. Toetz would later be brought in on a Fernando Gonzalez double to put the score at 7-2 going into the sixth.

In the seventh, Dillon Carter would manage to get a hold of another one as Carter blasted his second homer of the day to put Georgia’s lead at 9-2.

Kolten Smith would finish his day on the mound after the eighth inning as he was absolutely dominant in game one. Smith finished his night with twelve total strikeouts on just two earned runs through eight total innings of work as his performance was one of the best that this Dawgs’ team had seen all season.

Christian Mracna would close things out for Georgia in the ninth as he allowed just two runs in the ninth to give the Dawgs the 9-4 win.

Game two would pick up on Friday as this one went down to the very end. Things had been back and forth all throughout as Georgia held a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning as Corey Collins stepped up to the plate. Collins would go on to rope his second home run of the afternoon into dead Center Field to push Georgia’s lead to 4-2 going into the eighth.

Unfortunately for the Dawgs, the Gators would get some offense going as well in the top of the eighth as Cade Kurland tied things up with a 2-run homer to put the score at 4-4 going into the ninth. Georgia would be unable to respond in the eighth and ninth as things stayed dead-locked at 4-4 up until the tenth inning as Florida would strike once again. Florida Catcher, Luke Heyman would manage to hit a three-run homer over the Left Field fence as it gave the Gators the 7-4 lead and the eventual win as Georgia was unable to respond in the bottom half of the tenth.

The series and season finale kicked off on Saturday as Georgia went for their 40th win of the regular season. Unlike game one and two, the Dawgs found themselves in a huge hole in game three as Georgia’s pitching staff was thumped all throughout game three as Georgia faced a 14-3 deficit by the seventh inning. The Dawgs would try to battle as they added on three runs in the seventh to bring things closer at 14-6. Florida would respond quickly in the eighth as they added two more runs of their own to put things at 16-6. Even with Florida’s bats rolling, the Dawgs still weren’t going down easily as Charlie Condon and Slate Alford both homered to help put things at 16-11 going into the ninth.

Though Georgia’s offense was battling, the Gators’ bats would stay relentless as Florida eventually sealed the 19-11 game three victory to conclude the Dawgs’ regular season.

The Dawgs finished their regular season with an overall 39-14 record as they went a solid 17-13 in SEC play. Georgia will now make their way to Hoover, Alabama as they will begin play in the SEC tournament. The Dawgs will face off against the LSU Tigers on Tuesday in a round one match-up, if Georgia wins they will take on the second seed Kentucky Wildcats in the second round on Wednesday. Both games are slated for 10:30 a.m. start times and can be seen on SEC Network.