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The Bulldogs dropped their series-opener to No. 14 Oklahoma 8-6 on Thursday night at Foley Field.
By: Olivia Sayer
Georgia baseball lingered in its dugout on a dark Thursday night at Foley Field. Some players sat on the bench staring into the abyss, while others kept their gaze on the floor. Beside them, coaches quietly analyzed the box score.
Typically, a regular season game would not have such a somber feeling to it, but for the Bulldogs, there were no “moral victories” in their fifth-straight loss.
“I don’t want to misquote it, but I want to say it was after a loss in the playoffs. Michael Jordan was playing the Cavaliers,” head baseball coach Wes Johnson said. “I can’t remember how many [points] he had — 40 something — but he got beat. They looked at Jordan after the game and said, ‘Man, that was a great game.’ He goes, ‘If it was great, we wouldn’t have lost.'”
The 10th-ranked Bulldogs, who are now 33-11 and 10-9 in SEC play after beginning the season 29-2 and 8-1 in conference play, dropped their series-opener to No. 14 Oklahoma 8-6. Georgia made it close at the end with a four-run eighth inning, but it was too little, too late.
“There’s no moral victories in our game,” Johnson said. “We can talk about the ninth and the eighth, but we’ve got to do that in the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh. We haven’t been doing that.”
Georgia, who trailed by seven entering the eighth inning, found something against one of Oklahoma’s left-handed relievers. Henry Hunter reached on an error to begin the frame, and Devin Obee and Slate Alford singled to load the bases.
Ryland Zaborowski then cleared them with a double to cut Georgia’s deficit to four runs. It was Zaborowski’s first hit in his last 12 trips to the plate and gave the Bulldogs momentum entering the bottom of the ninth inning.
Oklahoma’s closer, senior right-hander Dylan Crooks, quickly retired the first two Bulldogs, but consecutive hits from Obee and Kolby Branch brought Alford to the plate as the game-tying run.
Foley Field gasped as Alford hooked one deep into the night sky down the left field line and sighed as it landed just outside of the foul pole. The senior battled at the plate, but his 10-pitch at-bat turned from a potential game-tying home run into a game-ending strikeout.
“I’m really in love with the tail end of how we finished the game,” said Tre Phelps, whose leadoff home run in the fourth was Georgia’s only offense until the seventh inning. “That’s 110% what I expect from us. We’re that good of an explosive offense, and we just kind of need to show it and believe it.”
Phelps was one of the bright spots for a Georgia offense that only had five hits through the first seven innings. He finished the night 2-for-4 with two extra-base hits and saw 23 pitches, including a nine-pitch at-bat.
Phelps’ performance, combined with the competitive at-bats he put together on Tuesday night at Clemson, are evidence that the preseason All-American is close to getting back on track.
“Go up and compete,” Phelps said of the key to his recent turnaround. “Just slowing the game down and knowing that we hit 98-99 [mph] every single day in practice. Knowing that once the pitcher has the ball in his hand, he doesn’t really speed up. It’s either the same speed or not as fast, so being able to slow the game back down.”
Johnson believed the Bulldogs had chances to score earlier in the game but missed their pitches.
“I think their guy just made some pitches that if we could ask their coach, he’d probably say, ‘Yeah, [Georgia] missed early on.'”
Brian Curley delivered another solid start for the Bulldogs on the mound, surrendering two runs — on a home run in the second inning — through five innings. The junior right-hander has now gone at least five innings in each of his six starts this season.
Georgia’s bullpen, however, was uncharacteristically messy in relief. JT Quinn and Matthew Hoskins, two of the Bulldogs’ high-leverage arms, surrendered six runs in 2.2 innings before Justin Byrd closed out the game.
Georgia’s defense did not assist its relievers, committing two errors that allowed three Sooners to score.
Georgia will try to even the series on Saturday with a 1 p.m. first pitch.