Brandon Sproat tied his career high with eight strikeouts on his way to a quality start while Wyatt Langford hit his 10th home run of the season.
ATHENS, Ga. – No. 23 Georgia defeated No. 14 Florida by a final score of 6-1 in game two of the series at Foley Field on Friday night.
Florida (18-9, 3-5 SEC) starting pitcher Brandon Sproat was locked in during the early going, as the right-hander needed just 13 pitches to strike out the side in the first inning. Despite running into some trouble in the second, the Pace, Fla. native held the Bulldogs (21-6, 5-3 SEC) scoreless thanks to an inning-ending strikeout to strand the bases loaded.
Sproat and Georgia starter Jonathan Cannon found themselves locked in a pitchers’ duel for the first-half of the night. Sproat blanked the Bulldogs while notching seven strikeouts through the opening five frames.
In the sixth, Georgia found the scoring column for a trio of runs. Chaney Rogers brought in one with an RBI bunt single, while Parks Harber delivered a two-run double to left field to make it 3-0 in favor of the Bulldogs.
Florida remained down by three until the top of the eighth. Leading off the inning, Wyatt Langford put the Gators on the board with a solo shot to left-center field. The homer marked the 10th of the season for the Trenton, Fla. native.
Georgia added three late runs in the bottom of the eighth to bring the score to its final tally of 6-1.
Sproat (3-3) received the loss after firing six innings of three-run ball and tying his career high with eight strikeouts. The hard-throwing right-hander surrendered eight hits and one walk.
Cannon (6-1) earned the win, tossing six shutout innings with five hits allowed and two walks while striking out three.
Mac Guscette (3-for-4) and BT Riopelle (2-for-4) collected multiple hits in game two.
NOTABLES
* Sproat tied his career high with eight strikeouts.
* Langford hit his 10th home run of the season.
* Florida is now 191-113-2 all-time vs. Georgia including an 87-65-1 mark in Athens.
* The Gators are 28-15 vs. the Bulldogs under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
* Florida is 11-9 vs. Georgia in Athens under O’Sullivan.
* Florida has won 14 of the last 23 meetings including 11 of the last 19.
* Thompson extended his team-leading hitting streak to eight games.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On Brandon Sproat’s start…
“Brandon threw the ball really good. If he continues to throw like that the rest of the year, he’s going to certainly give us a chance every time he goes out to the mound. I guess the only mistake he made was we started the third inning with a hit by pitch with [Corey] Collins on a 1-2 count. It kind of got things going and that’s kind of what’s happened to us this year. Gave up three. I don’t want to take away from the effort Brandon had tonight. He was really, really good. A guy goes six innings and gives up three, it’s a quality start. He attacked the strike zone, so I’m really pleased with his start.”
On the bullpen and the offensive struggles…
“I thought Phillip Abner came in and did really good. Wanted to get him one innings worth to kind of get him some confidence. That’s the best he’s looked all year long. [Anthony] Ursitti came in and threw the ball well there and kept it right there. I know he had the hit by pitch, but made some pitches when he needed to. The bottom line is we made too many mistakes. We had the bases loaded with nobody out and didn’t score. We had first and second with nobody out and didn’t score. Mac tags up from third with one out and we got Wyatt on deck, this run means nothing. The left fielder is coming in on the ball. He’s not retreating towards the warning track and we get thrown out at the plate to end the inning. Sure enough, Wyatt comes up the next inning and hits a home run. I’m not quite sure why the mistake was made, but obviously that was not a good decision on the base paths.”
UP NEXT
Florida and Georgia go head-to-head in the series finale on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET. The matchup will stream live on SEC Network+.
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