Baseball: The quiet place

Bulldogs bounced from SEC Tournament as bats go cold against Ole Miss

During a game against Ole Miss at the 2021 SEC Baseball Tournament Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Ala., on Thursday, May 27, 2021. (Photo by Michael Wade)

Tournaments can be all about momentum.

If a team is hitting well, that can carry a squad on a deep run. On the other hand, struggles at the plate can result in a quick exit.

Facing elimination in the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., on Thursday, Georgia’s bats failed to get anything going for the second straight day. The 4-0 loss to Ole Miss (40-18, 19-13) sent the Bulldogs (31-25, 14-19) home to await their NCAA Tournament fate.

“Offensively, we didn’t have a good approach,” head coach Scott Stricklin said after the game. “We were not good enough to win yesterday, not good enough to win today. We’ve got to find a way to get better. I feel like we’re going to playing a couple more games, at least. We need to clean up offensively, for sure.”

For the third straight game in the tournament, Georgia’s opponent drew first blood. Ole Miss left fielder Kevin Graham opened the scoring with a solo home run off Bulldog starter Liam Sullivan in the bottom of the second inning.

Sullivan allowed another run next inning before departing after three frames of work. He kept the game from getting too out of hand, but even just one run proved to be an insurmountable deficit against Ole Miss starter Drew McDaniel.

After giving up five runs in just three innings against Georgia last weekend, McDaniel answered with his best start of the year on Thursday. He dealt 6.2 scoreless innings while allowing four hits and striking out 11. The innings and strikeouts were both career highs.

“Sometimes, you have to tip your cap a little bit,” Stricklin said. “But that being said, we’ve got to find a way to foul some balls off with two strikes and try to hit the ball the other way. It just didn’t happen today. He was really good, our approach wasn’t really good. You put those two things together, you get a shutout.”

The Rebels added a couple insurance runs in the fifth and then turned it over to the bullpen to complete the shutout.

Now, Georgia waits until the NCAA tournament selection show on Monday to find out if it did enough to make the tournament. Stricklin reiterated after Thursday’s loss that he feels the Bulldogs earned a spot with their play in Hoover.

With that in mind, he will give his players Friday and Saturday off before practicing on Sunday in preparation for a regional. The team will also practice on Monday either before or after the selection show.

It won’t be official until Monday, but right now the Bulldogs are confident that their season isn’t over just yet.

“We’re going to get after it,” outfielder Riley King said. “We’re going to get ready to play postseason baseball. We’re going to have practice, we’re going to treat it just like we’re going into a tournament. That’s on our mind, that’s our goal. We’re going to treat it like we’re going.”