A wet, cold and miserable Saturday at Foley Field brought a mixed bag of results to the Georgia baseball team.
The Bulldogs used four pitchers to hold Belmont to one hit as Georgia won the first game of a doubleheader 2-1 in 10 innings to stop a three-game losing skid. But Belmont scratched out nine infield singles to help itself to an 11-10 win in Game 2.
?It was good to show some fight, which we?ve been lacking all season,? Georgia shortstop Kyle Farmer said. ?We hung in there in the second game. It was awesome to come back with some runs after giving up a big inning. Sometimes we?ve been going three-up, three-down in those innings. But tonight we came back and put some hits together and got some runs.?
Georgia (2-4) and Belmont (4-2) will play the rubber match of the three-game series starting at 2 p.m. today at Foley Field.
Unusual plays were the deciding factor in both of Saturday?s games and the chilly, misty weather played a part in much of it.
Georgia won Game 1 after Belmont right fielder Drew Turner slipped on the damp grass and Curt Powell?s line drive rolled past him to the wall for a triple to lead off the 10th inning. Powell scored on Farmer?s sacrifice fly to give Georgia the walk-off win.
In the second game, Belmont?s 17 hits included 16 singles and nine of those were on the infield. Belmont scored four of its six runs in the third inning on bases-loaded infield hits.
?I don?t think I?ve ever been involved in a game like that,? Georgia pitcher/outfielder Jared Walsh said of Game 2. ?That was unreal. It seemed like every time the ball just floated right through the infield and right in front of us. But we?ve probably got some of those coming our way and we?re excited about that.?
Georgia?s pitching was strong in Game 1 with one glaring exception. Starter Sean McLaughlin along with relievers Blake Dieterich, Jarrett Brown and Walsh combined to limit Belmont to one hit in 10 innings. But that one hit was a home run by Matt Beaty that eventually forced the game into extra innings. Walsh (1-1) pitched a scoreless 10th to earn his first win of the season. Walsh also had an RBI groundout in the first inning of Game 1.
Powell started the 10th inning with a sinking line drive to right field. Turner slipped as he came up to field the ball on the short-hop and the ball rolled past him to the wall, which enabled Powell to get a triple. Farmer brought home Powell with a sacrifice fly to secure the win.
?I hit it and it looked like the fielder just got caught in between and couldn?t decide if he wanted to block it or try to dive for it,? Powell said. ?Luckily for us it skipped past him and Farmer came up big. I saw it skip past him and I just put down my head and told myself I?ve got to get to third and give Farmer a chance.?
Georgia?s prospects looked good to start the second game as it took a 4-1 lead into the third inning. But Belmont retaliated with six runs on seven hits, including four infield hits, plus a walk to take a 7-4 lead and never trailed again.
?It seemed like they saved up some hits from that first game,? Georgia coach David Perno said. ?It was unfortunate. But we created some of that chaos on our own. We went out there. They made some mistakes and we took advantage and had a good lead. Patrick (Boling) is in a good place. He goes out there and it just kind of unraveled on him. (Bryan) Benzor came in and made some good pitches but they found some holes. That happens when you?ve created on your own.?
Belmont picked up a run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly to take an 8-4 lead. Georgia scratched back to within a run in bottom of the seventh as Walsh and Daniel Nichols had RBI hits. Brett DeLoach?s RBI groundout to score Farmer pulled Georgia within 8-7 going to the top of the eighth.
?We?re know our offense is there,? Powell said. ?Shoot, we hit the ball well all fall so it?s just a matter of time. Today we kind of showed a little bit of what we can do when we put the ball in play and put some pressure on the other team. I think we?re in there for the long haul.?
Belmont all but put the game away with five hits and three runs with a walk and a wild pitch by Grant Earls to take an 11-7 lead going into the ninth.
?The eighth inning is the one that really ticks me off,? Perno said. ?At that time we?re in good position considering that you?ve given up six earlier. We felt really good about things but that changed everything. That made it tough, but I was proud of us the way we came back.?
Brett DeLoach hit an RBI double and J.T. Phillips had a two-RBI single as Georgia scored three in the bottom of the ninth to fall one run short.
DeLoach and Walsh each had three hits and two RBIs in Game 2. Nelson Ward had three hits and one RBI. Patrick Boling (0-2) allowed six hits and six runs (five earned) to take the loss.
Belmont?s Scott Moses and Neil Hickman each had three hits. Hickman had two RBIs while Jared Breen also had two RBIs in Game 2.
Notes: Walsh?s RBI groundout in the second inning of Game 1 was the first time this season that Georgia has scored a game?s first run. Georgia also scored the first run of Game 2. ... Walsh set a career high with three hits in Game 2. ... Justin Bryant broke a 0-for-13 hitting streak with a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning of Game 2. ... Georgia had three double plays and two base runners picked off of first in Game 1. ... Dylan Cole pitched the ninth to become the first Bulldog to pitch both for and against Georgia in Foley Field since Craig Gullickson in 2011. Cole is a transfer from Furman and Gullickson was a transfer from Clemson.
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