The Georgia baseball team needed to have a big weekend after getting swept by Mississippi State in its last series. And the Bulldogs responded in a big way by sweeping the Florida Gators this weekend.

The Bulldogs went 4-0 this past week as they also picked up a mid-week win over The Citadel. The successful week led to a bump in the rankings, as Georgia is now ranked No. 7 in the Baseball America rankings and No. 8 in the D1Baseball rankings. 

Georgia — who was playing without its best pitcher in Emerson Hancock and hitter in Aaron Schunk — came away with a 6-4 win on Friday. Saturday’s game was rained out, which led to a doubleheader on Sunday. Over the two Sunday games, the Bulldogs gave up just 5 hits and 2 two runs. Georgia won the first game 9-1 and the second 4-1.

It was the first time that the Bulldogs swept Florida in Athens since the 1983 season.

“A sweep was going to be huge this weekend,” freshman pitcher Cole Wilcox said. Winning the first two was huge, but winning that third one is where Coach Stricklin always says good teams win two but great teams win all three. So I knew we had to win the game.”

Wilcox was named the SEC Freshman of the week for his efforts on Sunday. He threw a complete game two-hitter on Sunday while striking out 7 Florida Gators.

This week the Bulldogs visit Jacksonville State on Wednesday and then take on the Auburn Tigers. The matchup against Auburn will be Georgia’s final SEC road series of the season. Georgia is in second place in the SEC East standings and third overall behind Vanderbilt and Arkansas.

Georgia softball also sweeps

The Georgia softball team is playing its best as it enters postseason play. The Bulldogs swept visiting Ole Miss this weekend and pushed their winning streak to five.

Georgia picked two tightly contested wins in the first two games against Ole Miss, as the Bulldogs won 1-0 and 6-5 respectively. But Georgia was able to win with ease in the finale, as the Bulldogs won 8-0 in five innings to sweep the visiting Rebels on a senior day.

“The most import thing was to focus on us,” Georgia softball coach Lu Harris-Champer said. “Having the two seniors we have it was not hard to get the team pumped up. All they wanted to do was come out here and play hard for Kylie (Bass) and Alyssa (DiCarlo).”

The Bulldogs will enter this week’s SEC Tournament as the No. 8 seed. Georgia will take on Arkansas in the first round on Wednesday. Should Georgia win, it will advance to take on the top-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide on Thursday.

Georgia and Arkansas have did not meet during the regular season. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m., ET and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

Women’s Tennis moves on in NCAA tournament, men’s team falls to North Carolina

The No. 1 ranked Georgia women’s tennis team breezed through its first two rounds of the NCAA tournament this past weekend. The Bulldogs advanced to the Round of 16 with 4-0 wins over Alabama State and Wake Forest.

This will make the ninth consecutive season in which the Bulldogs are in the final 16.

“I thought our players did a good job to close that thing out,” Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace said. “It’s good to see Marta [Gonzalez] getting that point, and she’s stepping it up and playing some great tennis. Lourdes [Carle] looked good start to finish. All in all, we’re excited to be in the Sweet Sixteen, excited that we get to play back here Saturday against a great Michigan team.”

The Bulldogs will get a chance to advance to the quarterfinals if they can beat No. 16 Michigan. Georgia will host the Wolverines this Saturday at 2 p.m.

The men’s tennis team didn’t have quite the same success, as they saw their season come to an end against the No. 10 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Bulldogs beat Elon in the first round but then fell on Saturday to North Carolina, 4-1. Georgia ends its season with a 14-11 record. Georgia will be bringing in a top-5 class next season.

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