Georgia baseball shook off Saturday showers and a rocky Game One loss to Ole Miss to even the series with a 7-3 win.
Starter Charlie Goldstein continued his improbable dominance for the Bulldogs (24-19, 8-12 SEC), allowing just three earned runs in seven innings at a saturated Swayze Field in Oxford, Miss.
“Yeah, it just kind of was steady, it was just kind of annoying,” UGA coach Scott Stricklin said about the rain. “When you’re the visiting team, they’re not going to fix that mound for you, they’re going to wait until their guy gets out there and that’s the way it goes.
“I thought Charlie did a good job overcoming that, and it was really a non-issue.”
Saturday also marked the longest outing of Goldstein’s career.
Goldstein, who came out of the bullpen on April 9 to be UGA’s No. 3 starter, has now surrendered four earned runs in 23.1 innings over four starts.
The redshirt sophomore, who did not pitch in 2022, had an 8.64 ERA as a reliever before making the switch. His 1.56 ERA as a starter is the lowest by a Georgia pitcher this season.
The Bulldogs will look to win their third conference series of the season at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. A win would mark UGA’s first road series win of the season, and its first consecutive SEC series win after sweeping No. 7 Arkansas last week.
The Bulldogs jumped to a 3-0 lead without a hit in the third inning. Sebastian Murillo, Mason LaPlante and Ben Anderson all scored after reaching base on two walks and a hit by pitch.
Parks Harber delivered the go-ahead blow in the fifth inning. The junior skied a two-run homer just over the left-field wall to take a 5-1 lead.
Harber led the lineup statistically, hitting 1 for 4 with three RBI, a homer, a walk and a run.
Anderson and Connor Tate delivered a pair of shallow RBI singles to take the 7-3 lead. The Bulldog lineup hit 4 for 29 with runners in scoring position over its last two games, so the singles helped break an ugly trend.
“Just good to do that,” Stricklin said on 960 The Ref. “Sometimes, you squeeze the bat a little harder when you know that you’re in a little bit of a funk like that, but bottom line, good win.”
Chandler Marsh and Leighton Finley held Ole Miss scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings to seal the win. Georgia did not allow a walk for the third time this season.
As much as it would boost Georgia to beat the Rebels (22-21, 4-16), a series loss to the SEC’s last-place team would likely hurt it more. The Bulldogs clawed back into the NCAA Tournament conversation after sweeping the Razorbacks, but a series loss to Ole Miss would almost certainly drop them back out.
UGA was projected as one of the “Last Five In” in D1Baseball’s Field of 64 Projection entering this week.
Earning home wins won’t be easy for the Bulldogs, either. UGA’s last two home opponents are a red-hot No. 24-ranked Tennessee team and No. 1 LSU. Georgia does visit 5-15 Missouri in two weeks.
Liam Sullivan will be on the mound for Georgia on Sunday. The junior is UGA’s only pitcher to start every weekend, as ace Jaden Woods has missed the last two series with arm fatigue.
Sullivan will look to replicate his dominant shutout performance against Kentucky three weeks ago. The lefthander surrendered 10 earned runs over 9.1 innings in his last two starts.
Ole Miss is yet to announce a starting pitcher.
