Georgia baseball tops LSU in SEC Baseball Tournament, makes case for NCAA bid

Georgia baseball made its case for a spot in the NCAA baseball tournament with a 4-1 victory over LSU in the opening round of the SEC tournament on Tuesday at the Hoover Met in Alabama.

Coach Scott Stricklin said entering the tourney he felt the Bulldogs needed to beat the Tigers to secure an at-large bid in the 64-team NCAA Baseball Tournament. UGA had the No. 41 RPI in the nation entering the night.

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Both No. 8-seed Georgia (31-23, 14-17 SEC) and No. 9-seed LSU (34-22, 13-18 SEC) didn’t waste any time getting down to business on Tuesday, scoring all of their runs in the first inning.

UGA’s Chaney Rogers’ delivered the key hit, a three-RBI, two-out double that broke the game open at 4-1.

The Tigers had jumped to a 1-0 in the top of the first inning off UGA starter Luke Wagner.

LSU attacked quickly with two singles on the first four pitches of the game and loaded the bases on a hit batsman.

Wagner settled down, inducing an RBI double-play groundout before fanning the next hitter to retire the side without further damage on the scoreboard.

Georgia advances to the double-elimination portion of the bracket with the win and next faces No. 1-ranked Arkansas at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.