Georgia baseball continued its dominance over in-state competition, sinking Georgia Southern 17-11.
The same Bulldog (9-3) offense that powered a weekend series win over Georgia Tech exploded on the Eagles (7-5) at SRP Park in North Augusta, South Carolina.
The two teams will play again at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Southern’s Paulson Stadium in Statesboro.
UGA’s offense simply hit harder than Georgia Southern on a night where neither pitching staff appeared to settle in at the neutral site.
Georgia finished with nine RBI on its six extra base hits. Southern had just two extra base hits for one run.
The Bulldogs scored seven of their 17 runs on two swings. Redshirt freshman Charlie Condon towered a bases-clearing triple to center field to take a 4-3 second inning lead.
The SEC’s reigning Co-Player of the Week extended an 11-game hitting streak, hitting 1 for 5 with four RBI.
Parks Harber then blew the game open with an opposite-field grand slam in the seventh inning. Harber leads the team with six home runs on the year.
“The last few games, he had been scuffling a little bit, and I kind of patted him on the back,” Georgia coach Scott Stricklin said on 960 the Ref. “Before I even said anything ... he said, ‘Coach, I’m getting a big hit today.’”
Kyle Greenler and Chandler Marsh helped slow the Eagle offense, combining for nine strikeouts in 4.2 scoreless innings. The Bulldogs scored eight unanswered runs while Greenler and Marsh were on the mound.
“(Greenler) really did settle it down,” Stricklin said. “He went an inning and two thirds and (pitching coach Sean Kenny) and I looked at each other, and I said, ‘He just put up a zero. He deserves to go back out there again.’”
Dalton Rhadans shut the door with two scoreless innings of his own.
It was still a frustrating day for Stricklin, as his other four pitchers gave up all 11 runs on six hits and six walks.
“We are not hanging that in an art museum, at all,” Stricklin said. “The bottom line is, every time that they scored, we answered.
“That’s the sign of a good team.”
Freshman Kolten Smith will start against the Eagles tomorrow. The righthander has six strikeouts, four hits and one earned run in 3.1 innings this season.
