Georgia baseball is ready for “just another game” after Florida rallied for a 7-4 win in extra innings, snapping the Bulldogs’ nine-game winning run. The No. 8-ranked Bulldogs and Gators will face off at 2 p.m. Saturday in a contest that could determine whether Georgia will host a Super Regional.
Georgia, 39-13 overall and 17-12 in the SEC with a No. 3 RPI, has won a regional spot and is vying for a Top 8 national seed, which would guarantee hosting a best-of-three Super Regional.
It looked like Georgia’s day when Clayton Chadwick made a leaping catch at the wall in right center, stealing a would-be home run from Tyler Shelnut in the second inning.
The Bulldogs’ defense wasn’t done: Dylan Goldstein made a diving catch in short right field to preserve a 3-2 lead as the game moved to the bottom of the seventh inning.
Florida rallied off reliever Brian Zeldin, striking for 2 runs to tie the game at 4-4 in the eight before taking control on Luke Heyman’s 3-run homer off Zeldin in the top of the 10th inning
Georgia pitching faltered. For all of Johnson’s brilliant metrics and tremendous teaching techniques, the Bulldogs simply might not have enough talent on the mound.
Florida pitching was superior on Friday, and Johnson didn’t mind saying so when putting the loss into perspective.
“You tip your hat to their guy, and it’s like I told our guys afterwards, this is good — things that are hard are always good,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to enjoy things that are hard, facing pitchers like today was hard, and we’ve got to learn from it.”
Collins exemplified Georgia’s steady nature after the game.
“We’re not trying to ride the rollercoaster, we’re just trying to stay even and take care of what we can take care of,” Collins said.
“Not trying to press, not clicking the panic button, The balls didn’t fall today when they needed to, but I mean, who knows? Tomorrow they can.”
Georgia will have to go through Jac Caglianone, as the top two-way player in the nation is expected to be on the mound for the Gators.
“Tomorrow is just another game, first pitch is at 2 o’clock,” Johnson said.
“We need to get in the box against Caglianone and not chase, stay within ourselves and our approach against him and get off good swings. If we do, everything else will start to take care of itself.”
Georgia was projected as the No. 7 national seed heading into the series with Florida, but the Bulldogs will need to win on Saturday to hold that spot.
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