Georgia didn’t dance out of danger two nights in a row.
The Bulldogs (31-24, 14-18 SEC) escaped a potential catastrophic first inning in Tuesday’s win over LSU in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. The same can’t be said of Wednesday’s game against No. 1 Arkansas (43-10, 23-8), as countless mistakes led to an 11-2 loss.
“When you play Arkansas, you’ve got to play really clean baseball,” Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin said after the game. “We didn’t do that. We didn’t make plays, made a couple of errors, walked way too many guys.”
The mess began when Georgia starter Charlie Goldstein walked a pair of runners to start the second frame. An RBI double put the Razorbacks up 1-0 and knocked Goldstein out of the game.
Sophomore Michael Polk then entered. He allowed another run, but also recorded two outs. As bad as the inning looked, the Bulldogs were on the verge of escaping just as they had done against the Tigers the night before.
Then, the wheels fell off.
Polk walked in the third run. An infield single scored two thanks to a throwing error from second baseman Josh McAllister. Another throwing error, this time from Polk on an attempted pickoff, scored the sixth and final Arkansas run of the inning.
Meanwhile, Arkansas starter Lael Lockhart dominated all night. Staked to the early 6-0 lead, he cruised through the first six innings without allowing a baserunner while his team built the lead up to 10-0.
The Razorbacks continued to extend the lead thanks largely to errors from Georgia pitchers. The Bulldogs walked a total of 14 batters in the contest, including three more free passes with the bases loaded.
“At the end of the day, the free passes killed us,” Stricklin said. “They scored 11 runs on seven hits. That’s not a very good line score. We’ve got to clean that up.”
Down to their last out in the seventh, the Bulldogs got an infield single from McAllister and then a two-run home run from designated hitter Corey Collins. That prolonged the game and kept the team from being shut out, but it didn’t prevent the eventual 11-2 defeat.
Georgia is now 1-1 in the SEC Tournament and will face the loser of the Vanderbilt-Ole Miss game Thursday at 2:00.