ATHENS — Georgia baseball closes the regular season at 2 o’clock today needing desperately to beat Ole Miss and keep its postseason hopes alive.
The Bulldogs (29-23, 12-17 SEC) are fading fast, having lost 9 of 11 games. UGA has dropped to No. 46 in real-time RPI ratings on the heels of Friday night’s 8-5 loss to the No. 11-ranked Rebels (38-16, 18-11) in 11 innings at Foley Field.
Coach Scott Stricklin entered the three-game weekend series with Ole Miss declaring his team needed to win two of three to feel good about its postseason chances, and the numbers back him up.
Georgia Tech’s 7-6 win over Georgia in 14 innings last Tuesday night has indeed proven costly.
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The Yellow Jackets beat North Carolina on Friday night with a walk-off home run to run their record to 27-21, but more importantly, move past the Bulldogs in the RPI ratings (No. 45). Having beaten Georgia twice head-to-head this season and won 7 of its last 11 games, Georgia Tech has a strong case to be ahead of Georgia in the at-large pool pecking order.
The Bulldogs had a 5-1 lead over Ole Miss entering the eighth inning on Friday night with the near-capacity crowd at Foley Field looking on.
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Freshman Liam Sullivan delivered a tremendous start, going 5 1/3 innings and allowing just one run before being lifted with one out in the sixth inning for fellow freshman Jaden Woods.
Woods surrendered back-to-back one-out singles in the eighth inning and an home run as the Rebels closed to 5-4 before Stricklin turned to redshirt sophomore Ben Harris out of the bullpen.
Harris promptly gave up the game-tying home run to the first batter he faced, Ole Miss senior Tim Elko, and suddenly the game was tied 5-5.
Harris (4-2) settled down to get out of the inning and hold the Rebels scoreless in the ninth and tenth innings, but the Georgia bats had fallen silent, unable to muster any run support the final five innings of the tightly contested game.
“Ben kept us there, he gave us a chance we had opportunities in the ninth and the tenth to win with guys on base and just couldn’t get the hits,” Stricklin said. “It just didn’t happen for us.”
Ole Miss finished off Harris and Georgia in the 11th with a flukey infield squib hit that led off the inning and three two-out RBI singles doing the damage.
Senior Day festivities start for UGA at 1:30 p.m.
The Bulldogs haven’t been swept in an SEC series this season.
