No. 9 Georgia (3-0), capped off a perfect opening weekend with a 13-1 victory over Dayton Saturday in game two of a series ending doubleheader. The Bulldogs took all three games from the Flyers, winning 8-1, 10-7 and 13-1 respectively to remain undefeated.
Up next for Coach Scott Stricklin’s squad is Kennesaw State in a home and home two-game series. Georgia will travel to Kennesaw Tuesday for game one while the Owls don’t visit Athens until next Wednesday. In between the two games are a series with UMass Lowell through the weekend and a single game against LIU Brooklyn next Tuesday.
Before we dive into Tuesday’s matchup, let’s take a look back on an impressive weekend at Foley Field.
Georgia vs. Dayton recap
Friday, first pitch was moved up two hours to 3:00 pm due to rain in the forecast. However, that did not seem to affect the Bulldogs who put up five runs and only gave up one. Sophomore pitcher Emerson Hancock shined on opening day, recording six no-hit innings and leading Georgia to its first victory of the season.
Saturday, more precipitation in the forecast caused Sunday’s finale to get moved up, forcing a two-game doubleheader to decide the series.
The Bulldogs found themselves in an early 1-0 hole but quickly rallied to take control of the day’s first game. However, the Flyers would not back down, sending three runs across the plate in the 9th inning to end the game 10-7 in favor of Georgia.
Despite its late-game spark in the first game Saturday, Dayton could not get anything going later on. The Bulldogs pounded the Flyers in the third and final game of the series 13-1, thanks to a stellar performance on the mound by Tony Locey and a number of players at the plate.
There were so many great offensive performers over the weekend that we could only name a few. Riley King, Aaron Schunk, and Cam Shepherd led an offensive-minded attack that ended up scoring 28 runs in the three games combined.
Following the series finale, we caught up with coach Stricklin, Schunk, and Tony Locey who talked about the opening weekend and the challenges that the weather brought.
“Starting pitching is going to lead the way for us and for us to be really good, our starting pitching has to be really good”, said Stricklin.
The sixth-year coach went on to praise his starters for their work over the weekend before mentioning the success behind the plate.
“We had some big at-bats and I thought guys really really battled,” Stricklin said.
The Bulldogs had 33 hits in the series, while only giving up 17.
Aaron Schunk, who had three of five series hits in the final game, spoke about his breakout behind the plate.
“Just trying to find my pitch and get a good swing on it, do some damage, I just felt really comfortable”, said Schunk.
We asked the junior how the team spent its 30 minutes in between games on Saturday.
“It’s pretty quick, we’ve got a pretty quick turn around, I think we had about 35-40 minutes. They had some food for us, we were able to get a little food in us, changed a little bit.
After arriving early in the morning for the doubleheader, this was the team’s only break of the day. We spoke with Stricklin on the challenges of playing two games in one day.
“Doubleheaders are tough. It’s a long day, guys got here at 8:30 this morning, it’s basically a twelve-hour day and it can drain you. When we have the depth that we have, we have so many good pitchers and arms and athletes that can play different positions, it’s a great problem to have, is depth.”
Stricklin was referencing the amount of firepower the Bulldogs have on their bench and the plethora of players who can step in when needed for the team. That depth showed on Saturday as Georgia was able to put up 13 runs in the second game while Dayton seemed to have run out of gas.
Georgia @ Kennesaw State preview
Now, the Bulldogs head to the western Atlanta suburbs to take on the Owls after two days of rest.
Barring any weather-related cancellations, first pitch will take place at 5:00 pm tomorrow from Fred Stilwell Stadium.
Georgia (3-0), faces Kennesaw State (2-1) in part one of an annual two-game battle between the Peach State foes.
The Owls’ best season came in 2014 when they won the Atlantic Sun Championship over Lipscomb and the Tallahassee Regional, making it all the way to Louisville for Super Regionals.
However, Kennesaw State only joined Division I in 2006 after ten years in Division II and ten in the NAIA. This past weekend, the Owls went 2-1 at home, beating West Virginia 5-3 and Illinois-Chicago 9-2 before falling to Richmond 9-8. It should be noted that Kennesaw State only lost to the Spiders by one run after Richmond beat then No. 17 Georgia Tech 7-1 earlier in the day.
Fred Stilwell Stadium seats a comfortable 1,200 spectators and opened in 1984, making Tuesday’s game a little bit cramped.
This will be the first of four games in the metro Atlanta area for Georgia this season if you are planning on heading one or more. The Bulldogs travel to Georgia State on March 19th and Georgia Tech on March 26th before finishing off the three-game series with the Yellow Jackets at SunTrust Park on April 23rd.
