Georgia’s SEC woes continued over the weekend as the Diamond Dawgs dropped two of three to new conference foe Missouri at Foley Field. On Friday night, Georgia could not avoid the dreaded goose egg as Missouri blanked Georgia 4-0, the second time Georgia has failed to score in its last three contests.
Georgia redshirt junior Patrick Boling tried in every way to keep up with Missouri junior Rob Zastryzny, but it wasn’t enough as Boling gave up two earned runs on three hits in six innings. He fanned five batters and managed to pick off two Tigers runners.
Zastryzny pitched a seven-hit complete game shutout, holding the Bulldogs’ No. 2, 3 and 4 batters hitless. In the win, Zastryzny struck out four and did not walk a single UGA batsman.
“If we don’t get anything from the top of our order, it’s going to be tough to score like it was tonight,” said Georgia coach David Perno Friday. “We got four hits from the bottom, but overall we need to hit the ball on the ground and the guys that did that had some success. Their pitcher was pretty solid, but we still had a few chances, and that’s all you usually are going to get against a good one. We do have some guys pressing and we just don’t have a lot of confidence at the plate right now.”
On a gorgeous Saturday, the Diamond Dawgs did not fail to entertain in front of a season-high crowd of 2,679 at Foley Field, fending off a late surge to defeat the Tigers 6-5.
The Dawgs’ top of the order didn’t waste any time at the plate, going 6-for-15 to tally five of the team’s six runs to answer Perno’s plea for the top of the lineup to produce runs.
Missouri starting pitching Brett Graves was at the mercy of a challenged Georgia lineup. The sophomore from St. Charles, Mo., was shelled for 3.2 innings, surrendering five runs on seven hits. Georgia broke through early for two runs in the first frame via a sacrifice fly by senior shortstop Kyle Farmer and a double by sophomore Jared Walsh that plated freshman Hunter Cole.
Freshman pitcher Sean McLaughlin recorded his fourth win of the season as he held the Tigers to one run in five innings while not allowing a single walk.
For the next four innings, Perno used a quartet of relief pitchers in order to preserve the lead. Redshirt sophomore Ross Ripple was rocked for three earned runs in less than an inning. Senior Luke Crumley and redshirt freshman Mark Mancuso, the latter of which was making his SEC debut, combined to pitch 2.2 scoreless innings. Dylan Cole capped the game with his third save of the year, helping the Dawgs win their second SEC contest of the season.
In Sunday’s rubber match, Georgia scored five runs in the first three innings, but fizzled down the stretch. Missouri ultimately prevailed 8-5 as Georgia gave up seven straight runs to squander an opportunity to win its first SEC series of 2013.
Holding a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth, Cole relieved Blake Dieterich with the bases loaded. However, the closer gave up a bases-clearing triple to senior outfielder Dane Opel to surrender the lead to Mizzou, giving the Tigers their first lead of the contest.
“We just couldn’t execute in the ninth inning,” said Perno Sunday. “We let a team hang around after we were in control. We just couldn’t finish any innings off, and it just came back to bite us. We didn’t finish yesterday, and we didn’t finish today. We came out today and hit the ball all over the field, and then we played like it was over and we decide we don’t have to score anymore, but that is not the case.”
Georgia hosts in-state rival Georgia Tech Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
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