OXFORD, Miss. — Left-hander Charlie Goldstein pitched a career-high seven innings to lead Georgia to a 7-3 win over Ole Miss Saturday in front of a crowd of 9,798 at Swayze Field.
Goldstein (3-1), who is the reigning SEC Co-Pitcher of the Week, turned in his fourth straight stellar start in league play. He came into Saturday’s contest with a 0.55 ERA in his last three outings including wins over No. 10 Kentucky and No. 5 Arkansas and a no decision at No. 2 Florida. On Saturday, he scattered three runs on seven hits with no walks and four strikeouts for the win as the Bulldogs evened the road series with the Rebels.
The Bulldogs (24-19, 8-12 SEC) took a 3-0 lead in the third without the benefit of a hit. The inning began with a walk, a hit by pitch followed by another walk to load the bases. Redshirt freshman Charlie Condon (2-for-3, RBI) picked up an RBI when he was hit by a pitch. Graduate Connor Tate followed with a sacrifice fly and Parks Harber made it 3-0 with an RBI-groundout. The Rebels (22-21, 4-16 SEC) cut it to 3-1 in the fourth on a solo home run by Kemp Alderman, his 18th of the year.
In the fifth, Condon led off with a base hit, and with one out, Harber (1-4, 3 RBI) smashed his 15th home run of the season to extend Georgia’s lead to 5-1. That would end freshman JT Quinn’s outing as the Rebels looked to Sam Tookoian. In the sixth, a two-run blast from Calvin Harris pulled the Rebels to within two at 5-3. Quinn dropped to 3-1, allowing five runs on three hits with four walks and four strikeouts over 4.1 innings.
In the eighth, Georgia picked out a pair of two-out run-scoring singles from Ben Anderson and Tate to push their lead to 7-3. Then, the Bulldogs turned to sophomore right-hander Chandler Marsh in relief of Goldstein. Marsh took care of the eighth and freshman Leighton Finley preserved the win by pitching the ninth as the trio of Bulldog pitchers did not issue any walks on the day.
“It is amazing what happens when you don’t give up free bases,” said Georgia’s Ike Cousins head baseball coach Scott Stricklin. “Charlie Goldstein was good again, and he didn’t have his best stuff today. That shows you how good he can be. He did a good job of mixing his pitches. He got a lot of quick outs and that allowed him to go seven innings. Parks Harber had the big home run to give us some breathing room, and I thought the two biggest hits were Ben Anderson and Connor Tate in the eighth. It gave us a little bit of space, and then (Chandler) Marsh and (Leighton) Finley were really good.”
The rubber game of the series will be Sunday at 2:30 pm ET.
