No. 1 Arkansas fell behind No. 7 Georgia 3-0 early, but then went on to take a 13-3 win in Athens on Friday night.
The game saw Arkansas move ahead in the top of the seventh on a triple by Gabe Fraser, who had entered the game an inning earlier when Nolan Souza exited with an injury that Dave Van Horn said will keep him out awhile. Fraser's triple scored Kuhio Aloy who had walked to start the inning. Georgia starter Brian Curley exited after pitching five innings.
"That was a good job hanging in there by our team the first couple of innings after we got down 3-zip," Van Horn said. "Georgia came out and swung the bats extremely well. I think we just wore Curley down a little bit. The first three innings it was nine up, nine down. Then we put together some big hits and got us back in it. It was a good win on Friday night on the road."
Van Horn didn't hesitate to put Fraser in when Souza went down with an injury. The freshman quickly delivered.
"The other option would have been to move Cam (Kozeal) over to second and bring in another first baseman," Van Horn said. "But he has been playing well. He plays all three positions in the infield other than first base. I told him a few month's ago, "Your times coming and you are one injury away.' He came in and did a nice job."
Zach Root worked 5.2 innings. He allowed five hits, three runs, walked a trio and struck out seven.
"I thought Zach pitched extremely well," Van Horn said.
Aiden Jimenez worked 2.1 innings and picked up the win to move to 4-0. He allowed no hits, walked one and struck out two. Dylan Carter worked a perfect ninth.
After Georgia took the 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second, the Hogs tied it up in the top of the fourth. Wehiwa Aloy was hit by a pitch with one out. Logan Maxwell doubled to plate Aloy. Brent Iredale then singled to get Maxwell home. Kuhio Aloy then singled to get Kozeal home to tie the game.
After Fraser game the Hogs the lead in the top of the seventh, Arkansas then went on to add a pair of runs in the top of the eighth. Wehiwa led off the inning with a solo shot over the fence. With one out, Iredale doubled and then scored on a single by Kuhio Aloy.
Arkansas added seven runs in the top of the ninth. The Aloy brothers each knocked in three runs to lead the offensive attack. The Hogs finished with 13 runs on 12 hits while limiting Georgia's high-powered offense to the three runs on just five hits.
Georgia used six pitchers. The second one to the mound, JT Quinn (0-1) took the loss. He allowed one hit, a run, walked three and struck out two. Arkansas' three pitchers combined to strike out 11 Bulldogs while walking four. Georgia's six pitchers fanned 12 Hogs and issued six walks.
Georgia coach Wes Johnson was disappointed in the outcome.
“We had plenty of opportunities to turn this game in our favor,” Johnson said. “Offensively, we had second and third, we had bases loaded and we just couldn’t get it done.
“And then we decided to not execute some pitches right there in the seventh and the eighth and obviously the ninth kind of got away from us. We had opportunities to flip it and make the game completely different ad we just didn’t get it done.”
Arkansas (32-3, 12-1) and Georgia (30-6, 8-5) will play Game 2 of the series on Saturday at 3 p.m.