Georgia moves on to SEC semifinals
HOOVER, Ala. — Patrick Sullivan’s two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted Georgia to a 3-1 win over Arkansas in the third round of the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament Thursday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
The third-seeded Bulldogs (44-14), who are 2-0 at this year’s tourney, advanced to Saturday’s semifinals.
The second-seeded Razorbacks (41-16) will face seventh-seeded Ole Miss (35-24) today in an elimination game.
Arkansas threatened in the ninth with two-out singles from Jack Kenley and pinch-hitter Zach Plunkett, but Georgia closer Aaron Schunk — who had led off the bottom of the eighth with a double — went to the mound and struck out Jacob Nesbit for his 12th save of the season.
Ryan Webb (1-0) got the win in relief after starter Cole Wilcox allowed only an unearned run in 6 1/3 innings.
Arkansas starter Isaiah Campbell pitched five shutout innings.
In the eighth, Jacob Kostyshock (1-3) intentionally walked Cam Shepherd, who had a two-run, walk-off home run Wednesday against Texas A&M. Sullivan then drove in both Schunk and Shepherd.
The Bulldogs had tied it on Connor Tate’s RBI double in the seventh.
› LSU 4, Auburn 3
In a bizarre finish, No. 5 seed LSU (36-23) scored the tying and winning runs after a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat No. 8 seed Auburn (33-25) in an elimination game.
LSU trailed 3-2 and had runners on second and third with one out when Auburn reliever Brooks Fuller threw a pitch in the dirt. After catcher Matt Scheffler blocked the pitch, he looked for the ball and inadvertently kicked it several yards away.
The wild pitch enabled Giovanni DiGiacomo to score the tying run. Auburn first baseman Rankin Woley dove for the ball and made an errant throw that sailed past home plate and headed toward the third-base dugout, allowing Drew Bianco to score the winning run.
LSU’s victory came less than
24 hours after its 6-5 loss in 17 innings to Mississippi State in the second round, a game that started Wednesday night but didn’t finish until after 3 a.m. local time. At 6 hours, 43 minutes, it’s the longest game by time in SEC baseball tournament history.
LSU is set to play today
against the loser of Thursday night’s late matchup between top-seeded Vanderbilt (46-10) and fourth-seeded Mississippi State (46-11).
› Ole Miss 1, Texas A&M 0 Cole Zabowski’s two-out double in the ninth inning brought home the game’s only run as the Rebels edged the sixth-seeded
Aggies (37-12-1) in an elimination matchup despite going hitless for the first eight innings.
Texas A&M’s John Doxakis struck out 10 batters and walked four in eight innings of no-hit ball but left after throwing 99 pitches.
Thomas Dillard lined a leadoff single against reliever Bryce Miller (4-2) for the Rebels’ first hit of the game. Dillard advanced to second on Chandler Jozwiak’s balk and scored on Zabowski’s big hit.
It marked the second straight day the Aggies wasted a brilliant pitching performance by failing to score. Chris Weber held Georgia hitless for the first 7 1/3 innings of a 2-0 loss to the Bulldogs in the second round.
Doug Nikhazy (7-3) and Parker Caracci combined on a four-hitter for Ole Miss, with Caracci posting his ninth save this season.