The SEC is a beast in baseball.
That’s about the only way to explain Arkansas’ loss to Georgia on Thursday in the teams’ opener of a three-game set to start the back-half of league play.
The fifth-ranked Diamond Hogs entered as the leaders in the SEC West. Georgia was in last-place in the SEC East. But a five-run third inning by the Bulldogs provided enough room for a small Arkansas comeback in Georgia’s 6-5 win.
Georgia sent all nine hitters to the plate in the third against Arkansas starter Hunter Hollan. Three singles and a walk prefaced Fernando Gonzalez’s three-run home run to cap the scoring and provide the Bulldogs with a 5-2 lead.
Arkansas opened things almost immediately as Peyton Stovall, the second batter of the game, hit an RBI double. Three batters later Ben McLaughlin knocked him in with a single.
But the Razorbacks wouldn’t get anything else until the sixth when Caleb Cali’s sacrifice fly cut re-cut the lead to three after Georgia plated a run in the fifth.
Arkansas would load the bases with no outs in the eighth, but scored just one. In the ninth, needing two to tie, the Diamond Hogs would get just one on a Kendall Diggs double. The Razorbacks third baseman would be left there as a fly out and pop out ended the game.
Hollan worked five innings, giving up seven hits and all six runs. Four of the knocks and five of the runs came in the one bad inning. At the plate, Cali knocked in two, while he, Diggs and McLaughlin each had two hits.
Game 2 is set is set for 5 p.m. on Friday.
[lawrence-auto-related count=1 category=131]
[mm-video type=playlist id=01fc3h383th881vsf1 player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=]