ATHENS, Ga. – Third-ranked Georgia opened its three-game series against No. 11 Auburn with a 4-1 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 3,633 Friday at Foley Field.
The win kept Georgia (26-2, 6-1 SEC) in a four-way tie atop the league standings.
The Bulldogs played long ball early as senior Devin Obee smacked a two-run shot in the second and sophomore Dan Jackson cranked his seventh home run of the season, also a two-run shot, in the fourth inning. Georgia leads the NCAA in home runs with 76.
That was more than enough for four Georgia pitchers.
Graduate Charlie Goldstein started things off with three scoreless innings, while senior Brian Zeldin and redshirt-junior DJ Radtke finished out the ninth. Radtke collected his second save with a pair of strikeouts. Georgia pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts.
"We've been starving for it,” Georgia head coach Wes Johnson said about the Bulldogs’ pitching performance. “To put the zeros up as long as we did tonight against the best offense we've seen this year was a credit to him (Kolten Smith). Even Charlie (Goldstein) put himself in some jams, but executed those off-speed pitches."
The loss dropped Auburn (19-6, 4-3 SEC) into a tie for eighth place.
Due to inclement weather in the forecast for Sunday, the two teams’ will wrap up the series on Saturday with a doubleheader. The first game will be at 11 a.m. The final game of the series will begin at 4:02 p.m.
