University of Tennessee Athletics
Georgia's 3 HRs hand UT 6-2 loss
March 21, 2008 | Baseball
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ATHENS, Ga. ??? Georgia used three home runs and a solid outing by starting pitcher Trevor Holder to hand the Tennessee baseball team a 6-2 loss Friday night at Foley Field. The Volunteers fell to 13-6 (3-1 SEC) with the loss. It was UGA???s fifth straight victory.
Tennessee sophomore Steve Crnkovich was tagged with the loss, falling to 4-1 on the year after allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits through six innings. Bulldogs starter Trevor Holder improved to 3-2 with the win, and Joshua Fields logged his fourth save of the year after coming on to pitch the final 2/3 inning.
Friday marked the third consecutive game in which Tennessee scored in the first inning. The Vols took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when second baseman Andy Simunic scored from third on a double-play ball. Simunic had previously led off with a single before advancing two bases on an infield error.
Georgia (11-7, 3-1 SEC) jumped out in front in the bottom of the first, however, when preseason All-America shortstop Gordon Beckham sent a two-run homer over the left-field wall. Beckham entered the weekend ranked second in the Southeastern Conference with a .513 batting average, and his first-inning homer was his 12th of the season.
Beckham drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the second inning, and UGA first baseman Rich Poythress then reached on a basehit. Both runners moved into scoring position on a passed ball, and Crnkovich retired the next two batters via shallow pop-ups. Another passed ball during catcher Bryce Massanari???s at-bat, however, enabled Beckham to scamper home from third to put the Bulldogs up 3-1. Particularly disheartening for the Vols was the fact that Massanari struck out on the very next pitch to end the inning.
Georgia third baseman Ryan Peisel made it a 4-1 game with an RBI groundout in the fourth.
After collecting basehits in each of his first two at-bats, Tennessee left fielder P.J. Polk drove in first baseman Jeff Lockwood with an RBI groundout in the top of the sixth to help UT pull within two runs, 4-2.
But Bulldogs centerfielder Matt Cerione quickly pushed Georgia???s lead back to three runs with a solo blast to dead-center with one out in the bottom of the sixth. It was UGA???s fifth hit of the night and its third for extra bases.
Beckham wounded the Vols further with another extra-base hit to lead off the bottom of the seventh, belting a solo shot to left. The junior???s second homer of the game put the Vols down by four, 6-2. Crnkovich then gave way to junior Joey Rosas after the each of the next two Bulldogs batters reached base on a walk and a double, respectively.
Fields hit freshman Kentrail Davis with a pitch to load the bases with two outs in the top of the ninth, bringing Vols third baseman Cody Brown to the plate as the potential tying run. But Fields got a called third strike give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead in the weekend series.
The bottom of the Vols lineup put together two-out, bases-loaded rallies in both the second and fourth innings as well, but they ended up stranding all three runners both times as Holder worked himself out of trouble. In total, Tennessee stranded 10 baserunners in the game.
Rosas worked two hitless innings in his SEC debut with one walk and a pair of strikeouts.
The loss snapped a four-game win streak in the series for UT.
The series resumes Saturday at 3 p.m. Redshirt freshman Bryan Morgado (3-1, 1.29 ERA)???who shares the SEC lead with 39 strikeouts this season???will start on the mound for Tennessee Saturday. Georgia???s starting pitcher is expected to be junior right-hander Stephen Dodson (2-1, 5.66 ERA).
Saturday???s game will be televised regionally on CSS.
