N. AUGUSTA, S.C. — A SRP Park record crowd of 6,015 saw Georgia outlast Georgia Southern, 17-11, on Tuesday in a slugfest.
The Bulldogs (9-3) scored in six of the eight innings it batted as junior Parks Harber smashed an opposite field grand slam as part of a five-run seventh to create some distance with the Eagles (7-5). Bulldog graduate Mason LaPlante went 4-for-5 with a home run and two RBI while graduate Connor Tate was 3-for-4 with two RBI to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 17 games (last five games in 2022 and all 12 this year).
In the second, redshirt freshman Charlie Condon extended his hitting streak to 11 games with his first career triple, and it drove in three runs to put the Bulldogs in front 4-3 after trailing 3-1 in the first. The Eagles struck for four runs in the top of the third to reclaim a 7-4 lead but Georgia responded again with a four-spot in the bottom of the inning for an 8-7 advantage. Georgia extended its lead to 10-7 in the fifth and 15-7 in the seventh. The Eagles drew closer with a four-run outburst in the eighth, and Georgia answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to build a 17-11 lead.
Graduate Kyle Greenler provided 2.2 scoreless innings of relief with five strikeouts for the victory while Eagle reliever Mitchell Gross dropped to 1-2. Georgia got a pair of scoreless frames from sophomore Chandler Marsh and graduate Dalton Rhadans to highlight the pitching as each team employed seven hurlers on the night.
“I thought the most important thing is we answered every time they scored,” said Georgia’s Ike Cousins head baseball coach Scott Stricklin. “They scored in three innings, and every time they did, we did too. We didn’t allow them to take over the momentum and that was important. Kyle Greenler got us out of a hole and settled the game down and was encouraging to see Chandler Marsh tonight too. Dalton Rhadans in the last two innings just calmed the game down. He throws nothing but strikes. It was good to see Parks Harber too with the grand slam. He called his shot. He said I’m going to get a big hit today, coach, and he did. We really needed that, he needed that and overall encouraged on how we answered tonight.”
The series continues Wednesday in Statesboro with first pitch slated for 6 p.m. (ESPN+). The Eagles will visit Foley Field on March 29.
