Dylan Vigue’s seven strikeouts and just two hits allowed through six innings were enough for No. 4 Georgia baseball to steal a 5-1 win over Florida, evening the series ahead of Sunday’s finale.
Coming off an 8-2 win to start the series, Florida’s bats started cold, as Vigue held them hitless through two innings. Meanwhile, third baseman Tre Phelps hit a leadoff triple for the Bulldogs, scoring off a groundout to claim a 1-0 lead.
The Gators registered their first hit in the third inning: an Ethan Surowiec RBI single that evened the score. The 1-1 tie sat frozen on the scoreboard for the remainder of both Vigue’s and Florida starter Liam Peterson’s outings. Peterson pitched seven innings, allowing eight hits but striking out four and stranding six total batters.
When Florida brought in Cooper Walls in the bottom of the eighth, momentum immediately shifted in favor of the hosts. Daniel Jackson started Walls’ day by delivering a leadoff double, and Rylan Lujo, who was 3-for-3, was hit by a pitch. Designated hitter Jordy Oriach then hit a single to right field and Jackson raced home, narrowly beating the tag to secure Georgia’s first lead of the afternoon.
The Bulldogs were not done. Ty Peeples entered as a pinch runner for Oriach, immediately stealing second before a pitch from Walls, ending his day on the mound and putting two runners in scoring position. A Henry Allen single and a Brennan Hudson sacrifice fly off Caden McDonald scored those two runners, extending the lead to three. Allen then scored on a wild pitch, completing Georgia’s four-run inning.
“Our whole goal was to get Peterson out of the game early, because we know that if he kept going, he’s a good enough pitcher where he just kept going at us,” Oriach said. “We just [had] to get to the ‘pen.”
After two crucial hitless innings from Caden Aoki, head coach Wes Johnson decided to leave him in for the ninth. His nearly perfect day continued, sitting down three straight batters to cap off the 5-1 win. Only one Gator reached base through Aoki’s three frames on the mound.
“He looked like he was the man out there,” Johnson said of Aoki. “He’s calm, he’s cool, he believes in himself, believes in his stuff and knows he’s going to get outs.”
The victory keeps Georgia in contention to win all of its first five SEC series, currently holding an 11-3 conference record and a 29-7 overall record. Sunday’s rubber match is set for noon, with Johnson indicating that he may opt to start righty senior Matt Scott instead of Kenny Ishikawa, who has started the last four Sunday matchups but has not gone more than 2 1/3 innings in any of them.