Kentucky baseball (15-3 1-0 SEC) came from behind twice to defeat the Georgia Bulldogs (17-2 0-1 SEC) by a score of 16-10 on Friday.
“I think we had full confidence we were going to come back and we never had a doubt in our mind,” Nolan McCarthy said.
Travis Smith started for Kentucky and ran into early trouble when Charlie Goldstein singled to left field to bring home Charlie Condon and put the Wildcats behind 1-0.
Smith walked and hit the next two batters to load the bases and Henry Hunter hit a sacrifice fly to bring home another runner and extend the early Bulldog lead to 2-0 before the arn limited the damage with a fly out to end the inning.
The trouble returned in the second as, after getting the first out, Dillon Carter hit a solo home run to right field that extended the Georgia lead to 3-0 before a double, intentional walk and a walk loaded the bases, which allowed a walk to score another run.
The offense for the Wildcats was held scoreless in the first, but in the second Mitchell Daly drew a one-out walk and advanced to third on a Ryan Nicholson single before a wild pitch by Georgia starting pitcher Goldstein scored Daly and trimmed the lead to 4-1 Bulldogs.
Smith settled into the game by tossing three consecutive scoreless innings in the third, fourth and fifth.
“He just kept putting up good pitches after good pitches and gave us a chance to mount our comeback,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione siad. “That third, fourth and fifth were big.”
Nick Lopez led off the bottom of the fourth with a single before advancing to second on a wild pitch. After a strikeout, Nicholson singled into right field to score Lopez and cut the deficit to 4-2.
After another out, Reuben Church, McCarthy and Ryan Waldschmidt hit successive doubles which, along with an Émilien Pitre single, gave the Wildcats a 6-4 lead after four innings.
A solo home run by Corey Collins in the fifth, along with a groundout and sacrifice fly in the sixth, allowed Georgia to retake the lead at 7-6, but it was short lived as, after a strikeout, McCarthy crushed his first home run of the season over the centerfield fence to tie the game at 7-7.
“It was good to get the team back up even,” McCarthy said. “I’ve been waiting a long time for that one.”
After Waldschmidt doubled and Pitre singled, Devin Burkes laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring home the former and give Kentucky an 8-7 lead.
After Lopez singled, a wild pitch allowed Pitre to score before Daly launched an opposite-field home run over the right field wall to score Lopez and give the Cats an 11-7 lead after six innings.
The Wildcat offense remained in sync in the seventh as Waldschmidt singled with the bases loaded to score pinch runner Ty Crittenberger and another wild pitch and a sacrifice fly plated two more Wildcats.
The inning was capped off by a Lopez two-run home run, scoring Burkes and bringing the score to 16-7, completing Kentucky’s third five-run inning on offense.
“Just a bunch of guys up and down the line up that contributed,” Mingione said about the offense scoring in different ways.
The Bulldogs plated one run in the eighth and two in the ninth, but the Wildcats ultimately held onto their lead.
“It’s a new game tomorrow and we got to come out and earn it again,” McCarthy said about carrying the momentum from the team’s win.
The Wildcats return to action on Saturday, March 16, for game two against the Bulldogs with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.
