The Georgia baseball team came away with a road series win over Auburn this past weekend and very nearly swept the Tigers. The Bulldogs are 5-1 in their last six SEC games and have risen once again in the weekly baseball polls. D1Baseball moved the Bulldogs up to the No. 7 spot, while Baseball America has Georgia at No. 6.
Georgia won the first game of the series 11-2, dropped the second game 4-3 in extra innings before winning the finale 10-7. Georgia did welcome back Emerson Hancock this series, as the star pitcher missed his previous two starts.
But it was another pitcher who received high honors from the SEC this week. Tony Locey was named the SEC Pitcher of the Week for his efforts on Friday against the Tigers. The junior struck out a career-high 10 batters while only giving up 1 walk in 7.0 innings of work. Locey is now 9-1 on the year and sporting a 2.63 ERA on the season.
“That might have been our best game of the year overall,” Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin said after Friday’s win. “Tony Locey was outstanding on the mound going seven innings with 10 strikeouts and Darryn Pasqua and Adam Goodman each went an inning too. Tony really settled in and threw a ton of strikes.”
The Bulldogs are now 39-14 on the season and spot an 18-9 record in conference play. Heading into the final weekend of SEC play, Georgia is tied for third in the conference, but only two games back of Vanderbilt for first place.
Georgia wraps up its regular season this weekend when it hosts the visiting Alabama Crimson Tide. The two teams begin their three-game series on Thursday with first pitch set for 7 p.m. Alabama enters with a 7-20 mark in conference play, which has them tied for last with South Carolina and Kentucky. If Georgia takes care of business, the Bulldogs should be well positioned to earn a top-8 national seed.
Men’s Golf continues great play at NCAA regionals
The Georgia men’s golf team got off to a great start on Monday by shooting even-par as a team. That left them in first place following the first of three rounds in the Athens Regional. Georgia followed it up with an even better 4-under score on Tuesday to put an even bigger distance between themselves and the rest of the field.
Georgia is one shot clear of second place Duke and 21-strokes ahead of fifth place. The top five teams from the regional advance to the next round of the NCAA Tournament, which places the top five finishers from the six regionals into a 30-team event.
The Bulldogs have been led so far by sophomore Davis Thompson. He’s 4-under through two rounds, the best mark by any individual in the Athens Regional. He shot a 2-under 69 to push his two-round total to 4-under. Junior Spencer Ralston is one-shot back of Thompson at 3-under.
Georgia wraps up its regional play on Wednesday. So long as the Bulldogs make the top-5, they will advance to the next round of the NCAA tournament.
