ATHENS, Ga. — Connor Tate's grand slam followed by a Parks Harber walk-off blast completed a five-run outburst to stun fifth-ranked Arkansas 9-8 on Saturday and complete a sweep of the Razorbacks in front of a Foley Field crowd of 3,688.
"It was just an awesome feeling," Georgia's Ike Cousins head baseball coach Scott Stricklin said. "This team deserves it. We had some tough sledding the first few weeks, but playing better, certainly. To get that sweep was huge for our out team. It's hard to do that against anybody, I don't care who you are playing, but to do in the league against a top five team, that's really good baseball team. I'm just excited for the guys. Things weren't going our way early, but we've still got four weekends left, and we put ourselves in a better conversation. We just have to keep the momentum going."
Saturday's marked Georgia's first sweep of top five ranked team since 1993 when it swept top-ranked Mississippi State. Also, it was only the second-ever sweep of Arkansas in the series history, the only other one came in 2000. The last time the Razorbacks were swept in an SEC road series was 2021 by second-ranked MSU.
Georgia (23-17, 7-11 SEC) grabbed a 2-0 lead in the third when redshirt-freshman Charlie Condon crushed his team-leading 18th home run of the season. The Razorbacks (30-10, 11-7 SEC) took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on a pair of home runs, a two-run shot by Caleb Cali and a solo home run by Hudson Polk. Georgia tied the game in the sixth on a sacrifice bunt by Sebastian Murillo.
In the seventh, Arkansas took a 5-3 lead and Georgia closed it to 5-4 in its half of the frame. Then in the eighth, Cali (3-for-4, 5 RBI) smashed a three-run home to put Arkansas ahead 8-4. Georgia responded in the ninth.
Arkansas freshman Christian Foutch started the inning before giving way to Ben Bybee with the bases loaded to face Tate. The Bulldog graduate connected for his fourth career grand slam including second in as many weeks to tie the contest. Last Friday at second-ranked Florida, Tate hit a ninth inning game-tying grand slam in an eventual 13-11 win. On Saturday, Harber followed with his second career walk-off home run off the batter's eye. For Tate, it was his 13th home run of the season and was the 12th for Harber.
"I hit it and thought it was going out, but I never have a good enough feel to realize it it's gone or not," Harber said. "I was kind of busting it around first, ready to get extra bases. I don't remember it. I blacked out. It was awesome for our team, huge momentum-builder and a great week of baseball."
Neither starter factored in the decision as Hagen Smith went five innings for Arkansas while Liam Sullivan went six for the Bulldogs. Freshman Jarvis Evans (1-0) pitched 1.1 scoreless innings for his first career win while Bybee fell to 2-1.
Georgia returns to Foley Field Tuesday when they it plays host to Georgia State. First pitch will be at 6:02 p.m.
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