The Georgia baseball team looks to regain its momentum on Saturday and bounce back from Friday night’s 19-3 shellacking at Mississippi Sate.

The No. 4-ranked UGA Bulldogs  (33-10, 13-6 SEC) play No. 9 Mississippi State (34-9, 11-8) at 1 p.m. (TV: SEC Network) in Starkville.

Friday night’s loss combined with a Vanderbilt  (33-9, 14-6) win over Auburn on Friday knocks Georgia out of first place in the SEC East Division by a half game.

Georgia is expected to send Tony Locey (7-0 2.04 ERA) to the pitcher’s mound with hopes of turning back MSU at 13,000-seat Dudy Noble Field on Saturday.

Coach Scott Stricklin’s UGA team looks to avoid what would be its first three-game losing streak of the season.

Georgia is without pitching ace Emerson Hancock for the weekend set, as he’s out on account of arm soreness.

From the looks of it, the whole pitching staff might need some time off.

Georgia entered into a Tuesday night game against Georgia Tech earlier this week at SunTrust Park leading the nation with a 2.57 ERA and the fewest hits allowed per nine innings (5.7).

But things took a turn, as the Yellow Jackets swarmed UGA’s mid-week pitchers in an 8-6 victory, taking two of three from UGA in the season series.

On Friday night, Mississippi State battered Georgia pitching for 19 hits, chasing starter C.J. Smith (3-3) in the fifth inning, scoring eight earned runs off of him.

To put Friday night’s defeat into perspective, in UGA’s previous 18 SEC games combined, the Bulldogs’ pitchers had allowed 102 hits and 46 earned runs.