Kentucky baseball (14-4, 1-2 SEC) could not hold No. 4 Georgia’s (21-2, 2-1 SEC) offense at bay in 17-10 series-deciding loss.
Overall, the pitching staff surrendered 15 hits, nine walks and hit three Bulldogs.
The game was a seesaw battle throughout, but the Wildcat arms just could not fend off the Bulldogs enough to keep or retake a lead.
For the third game in a row, the Bat Cats got off to a great start as Shaun Montoya doubled to leadoff the game and was brought home immediately by Luke Lawrence, who hit a two-run home run.
Cole Hage followed up Lawrence’s home run with one of his own to take a 3-0 lead.
The Bulldogs plated a run of their own on a home run by Robbie Burnett off of Ethan Walker.
Devin Burkes got that run right back with a home run over the left field wall that extended the lead to 4-1.
Walker served up another home run in the second, this time to Kolby Branch to make the score 4-2.
After the Wildcats did not score in the third, Georgia’s offense came to life with a seven-run inning that started after Walker loaded the bases to end his afternoon.
Evan Byers came on and gave up two singles that scored three runs before reloading the bases, which brought Nick Mingione back out of the dugout.
This time Nile Adcock was called upon and he walked a run in before giving up a bases-clearing double that gave the Bulldogs a 9-4 lead.
The Wildcats responded with two runs in the fourth as Hudson Brown scored on a wild pitch and Burkes grounded out to bring home Patrick Herrera.
Georgia added another run to its lead on a Henry Hunter home run off Simon Gregersen.
The Bulldogs gifted Kentucky a run on a wild pitch and Brown brought home Tyler Bell to cut the deficit to 10-8.
Gregersen stayed on and pitched the first of two scoreless innings for the pitching staff in the game.
This allowed the Bat Cats to tie the game 10-10 as Griffin Cameron scored on a wild pitch and Lawrence lofted a sacrifice fly to score Montoya.
The tie was short-lived as Gregersen crumbled by giving up three straight singles to break the tie.
Jackson Nove came on and also had no answers for Georgia as he surrendered a bases-loaded single that made the score 12-10.
It appeared the Wildcats would be out of the inning after Branch hit a grounder to Bell, but he botched a throw to first that brought home another run.
The error knocked Nove out of the game for Tristan Hunter, who surrendered two bases-loaded walks that inflated the lead to 15-10.
In the seventh, Kentucky attempted to respond as they loaded the bases with one out, but back-to-back strikeouts sealed its fate in the game.
Zak Spurrier gave up the final two runs of the game on a Hunter two-run home run.
Following the series loss, Kentucky will head back to Lexington for a midweek matchup with Murry State on Tuesday, March 18, with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. ET.
