Missouri Baseball Drops Series to the Georgia Bulldogs with a 10-7 Loss

A four-run fourth seals the series win for the Bulldogs despite a late-inning comeback from the Tigers.

Tensions ran high in this faceoff between the Missouri Tigers and the Georgia Bulldogs. A couple hit-by-pitches and near misses rose the tempers of the Georgia lineup and forced the umpires to discuss the close calls.

After forcing a five-run comeback in the third inning, Missouri ultimately dropped the series against Georgia with a 10-7 loss in game three.

Missouri put themselves in a hole to start the game that they would have dig their way out of. It was a repeat of the first two games of the series, but this one went more like game one.

Georgia was able to put up three runs in the first inning against Missouri's starter, junior Javyn Pimental and then another two in the second came home on NCAA home run leader Charlie Condon's third home run of the series.

But as they did in the last two games, Missouri fought their way back out of the hole, but also kept Georgia from scoring as they put runs on the board.

The Tigers loaded the bases in the third inning without a hit. The runners on came from a walk and two hit-by-pitches. It seemed like Missouri wasn't going to cash in on the free bases, but then they put up a two-out rally to score four.

A sacrifice fly from junior catcher Jedier Hernandez helped sophomore Jeric Curtis become the first to come home in the third inning. The offense just kept rolling from there. Graduate second baseman Matt Garcia got a single to right that pushed Kaden Peer across and sophomore first baseman Brock Daniels sent an double to center that brought the last two runs of the inning in.

After being absent from the lineup for a while, redshirt freshman Tucker Moore made his second start in a row against Georgia and proved how he could help the team. Moore tied the game in the fourth with a solo home run to center.

But Georgia answered back in the bottom of the fourth. Pimental put two on with one out via a walk and a hit-by-pitch before he was removed. Junior Bryce Mayer came in to the game to try to get the Tigers out of the inning, but it backfired.

Mayer hit the first batter he faced with a ball to the helmet and wasn't able to recover after. The next batter sent a RBI single into left to bring two in and give the Bulldogs the lead again. The brought in the third run of the inning with a sacrifice fly and the fourth with a walk to put the lead at 9-5. In total for the fourth inning, there were four hit-batsmen and three walks before they were able to finally get out of the inning.

Both offenses stalled after that point. On the pitching side, junior Kaden Jacobi put up two scoreless innings for the Tigers and despite getting runner on in late innings, Missouri's offense wasn't able to get anyone home until the bottom of the ninth.

The Bulldogs put up one more run in the bottom of the eighth against sophomore relief pitcher Daniel Wissler. But, Wissler was able to pitch through the remaining traffic on the bases and close out the game.

Sophomore designated hitter Jackson Lovich earned a late single before Garcia's home run to right. That brought the deficit to just three runs, but it wasn't enough to overcome the damage done in the fourth inning.

Missouri's record drops to 16-21 and 5-10 in conference play, while Georgia improves to 27-9 and 7-8. The Tigers will return to Missouri to face Missouri State on the road. The in-state rivals will face off on April 16 at 6:30 p.m. before the Tigers head back to Columbia.