The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bats stay hot in win over Clemson
Georgia’s bats are staying hot, and the Bulldogs can get on a run if they remain that way for SEC play.
No. 21 Georgia defeated Clemson 8-7 Tuesday night with another walk-off win at Foley Field. Parks Harber delivered the game-winner with a line drive to left-center, scoring Buddy Floyd.
“Just being in that situa- tion a few times this year has definitely had a role in helping me tonight, just calming my nerves down a little bit,” Harber said. “A month ago, my heart is racing and I’m trying to jump out of my shoes a little bit, but I was for sure more calmed down tonight.”
The victory gave the Bulldogs (24-12, 7-8 a season sweep of the Tigers (15-18, 9-12 ACC). Overall, Georgia has won three in a row and six of the past eight games.
It also continued a twoweek span in which Georgia has been knocking the cover off the ball. With eight more runs Tuesday, the Bulldogs have scored 69 in the past eight games, an average of 8.6 per game.
Now it’s time to go to work. Currently in a tie for fifth in the SEC East with Kentucky, Georgia faces Missouri and Auburn over the next two SEC weekends. Those teams are in last place in their respective divisions.
If the Bulldogs can take those two series, they could carry some serious momen- tum into May. And they’re going to need it, as that promises to be a challeng- ing four weeks. It will feature a road trip to SEC West-leading Arkansas followed by a home stand against Florida. Sandwiched on either end of the Auburn and Florida series are home-and-away dates against Georgia Tech.
By the end of it, the Bulldogs’ postseason fate likely will be set.
As for Tuesday against Clemson, Georgia fell behind 6-4 in what had been a back- and-forth contest. Georgia’s Cole Tate tied it up in the seventh with his second home run of the night, scoring Josh Mccallister.
Using three consecutive pinch-hitters in the eighth,
Harber led off with a sin- gle, Fernando Gonzalez put down a sacrifice bunt and Luke Wagner lined a single to left. Mcallister made the score 7-6 with an RBI single.
Clemson answered in the ninth as Caden Grice doubled and scored to knot the score at 7. That set up the bot- tom-of-ninth drama, which Georgia’s bench handled admirably.
“One through nine, there might be some teams better than us, but ... there are not many teams (better) 10 through 35,” coach Scott Stricklin said. “We have a lot of really good players. I think we threw seven differ- ent pitchers and played 14 different position players. Now with everyone healthy — I mean, knock on wood we can stay healthy — we can make some moves.”