Diamond Dogs avoid sweep in Starkville

By

Posted 5:32AM on Monday, April 8, 2002

STARKVILLE, Miss.- Georgia maintained its lead in the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division with a 9-2 win over Mississippi State Sunday before a crowd of 4,590 at Dudy Noble Field. The Bulldogs (17-10, 8-4 SEC) avoided a sweep by State (17-11-1, 6-5 SEC) with a masterful pitching performance by junior Brandon Moorhead who struck out a career-high 12 in five innings and sophomore Matt Woods who pitched the final four innings for his first save. Moorhead improved to 2-0 while State starter Joey Collums drops to 2-2. Collums allowed three runs on seven hits before leaving in the sixth. Georgia scored six runs on the State bullpen. The Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead in the second on a run-scoring double by Clint Sammons (2-5, RBI) who would later score on an obstruction call on a base hit by Chaz Lytle (2-5, RBI). In the third, Lee Mitchell (2-5) led off with a base hit and took second on an error by left fielder Jon Mungle. Matt Cavender (2-5, 2 RBI) followed with a run-scoring single right for a 3-0 advantage. State mounted a threat in the fifth after Moorhead struck out the first two hitters. However, Casey Long singled and then Matthew Brinson tripled to center to make it 3-1. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases, but Moorhead got Mungle to bounce into a fielder's choice to end the inning. In the eighth, Georgia added a pair of insurance runs to take a 5-1 lead as State made its second error to allow one run to score and a sacrifice fly by Jon Armitage brought Sammons home. In the ninth, Georgia tacked on four more runs including a three-run home run by freshman Marshall Szabo, his third of the year. "To improve our defense, we decided to go with Brandon (Moorhead), a strikeout pitcher, and it worked," said Georgia coach David Perno. "Brandon stepped up and Matt (Woods) did a nice job too. This was a big win for us after the way we played the first two games here. Hopefully, we have some momentum going into Tuesday." Georgia returns to action Tuesday against top-ranked Clemson (25-2). First pitch at Foley Field will be at 6:30 pm. It will mark Georgia's only home game in the current nine-game stretch that continues with a game at Clemson on Wednesday followed by a three-game SEC series at LSU beginning Friday.