Florida Takes Two

From UGA Athletics...

Tyler Thompson's two-out RBI single in the top of the 11th lifted No. 17 Florida to a 10-9 victory over No. 6 Georgia as the Gators completed a two-game sweep Saturday at Foley Field. The game was suspended in the bottom of the ninth on Friday and resumed after the regularly scheduled game on Saturday, which Florida also won 7-6.

Georgia (33-14, 14-9 SEC) had jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the second innning on Friday, but Florida (33-14, 15-8) rallied to tie it with two runs in the eighth before the game was halted with one out in the bottom of the ninth. The game resumed Saturday at 6:53 p.m, one hour and 50 minutes following the conclusion of Saturday's first game.

Florida now holds a one-game lead over Georgia in the SEC Eastern Division, and the Bulldogs have lost four straight SEC games.

"The thing is, we have to get things done in important situations," Georgia coach David Perno said. "Their guys are getting things done and we are just struggling. Our pitching needs to step it up. We've struggled on the mound since the Saturday game at Ole Miss. It's really tough when we're not executing and there are always people on base for them. There is little room for error when that happens.The end results have been disappointing for us so far this weekend, but if we turn things around tomorrow, we'll still at least come out of the weekend tied for first in the division."

Dean Weaver (1-2) took the loss for Georgia while Billy Bullock (2-2) earned the win for the Gators.

In the first game of the day, Florida scored two runs in each of the three middle innings and held on to beat Georgia 7-6. The Gators took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, and never trailed. Georgia tied it at 3-3 in the fourth, but Florida scored four straight to take a 7-3 lead. The Bulldogs got within 7-6 in the seventh but were held scoreless over the next two innings.

Florida won despite a season-high 16 strikeouts by Georgia pitchers including a career-high eight by Alex McRee.

McRee (4-1) struck out five batters through the first 1.2 innings, but Teddy Foster launched an opposite field home run with two strikes in the second to give Florida a 1-0 lead. Buddy Munroe hit a two-out home run in the fourth to give the Gators a 3-0 lead.

Georgia came back to tie it in the bottom of the fourth. Bryce Massanari hit a two-out, two-run home run to get the Bulldogs to within one, then a double by Lyle Allen scored Joey Lewis from first to tie the score at 3-3.

The Gators responded with two more runs in the fifth. After a 33 minute rain delay, Avery Barnes scored on a wild pitch, then Josh Adams scored on a bunt single by Matt den Dekker. In the sixth, Barnes tripled in another run then scored on a single by Preston Tucker to stretch Florida's lead to 7-3.

Joey Lewis cut Florida's lead to 7-5 on a two-out, two-run homer to left center in the bottom half of the inning. The Bulldogs loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh, but Nick Maronde entered the game and held Georgia to just one run and kept the Gators' lead intact.

Anthony DeSclafani (5-1) earned the win and Bullock picked up his ninth save.

The two teams will play the series finale Sunday at 2 p.m. with sophomore righty Justin Grimm (2-3, 4.42 ERA) on the mound for Georgia.