COLUMBIA, S.C. – The 12th-ranked Georgia baseball team hit five more home runs on Thursday en route to a 14-10 win over No. 14 South Carolina at Founders Park.
It was the Bulldogs' sixth straight win.
Redshirt sophomore Charlie Condon (2-for-4, HR, 2BB, 2 RBI) crushed his NCAA-leading 34th home run as the Bulldogs went back-to-back in the second inning, with senior Corey Collins delivering a two-run blast for his 15th of the year. Condon now has eight straight games with a home run. He has 59 career home runs in 104 games. He extended his hitting streak to 19 games with an RBI double in the first.
"I was proud of them the way we came out; we fought, battled, and knew it was going to be tough tonight," Georgia coach Wes Johnson said. "We didn't play our best, but we played good enough to win the game. You win on the road in this league, I told our guys, it's hard and so for us to make some plays. The offense was phenomenal, and Kolten Smith came in and settled things down and Chandler Marsh right there at the end too. Those were all huge for us. Tre (Phelps) had two big homers, Charlie (Condon), Corey (Collins) and Fernando (Gonzalez) hit one too. Dylan (Goldstein) had some good at-bats too."
Sophomore right-hander Kolten Smith came in with one out in the first and provided 5.1 innings of relief, allowing four runs (only one earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts to improve to 8-2. Chandler Marsh pitched the final two frames with three strikeouts.
"That was a massive team win, one on the road," Marsh said. "They are tough to come by, and we had a really good mix between the staff and the bats. We picked each other up. We've been working hard. I'm not taking anything for granted. It was a struggle for me and disappointing for a couple of weeks not to get on the field, and I put my head down and just worked. Now, I'm able to help this team. I think the whole staff is going to get better, and I know I have work to do."
GAME NOTES:
- Freshman Tre Phelps (2-for-5, 2 HR, career-high 5 RBI) smacked a three-run home run in the first to make it 4-0. It gave him a six-game hitting streak. He added a two-run blast in the seventh for a 14-7 lead.
- Senior Fernando Gonzalez smashed a three-run home run in the fifth for a 10-4 lead. It was his ninth of the year.
- Georgia tallied 11 hits on the night, nine for extra bases, including five home runs. The Bulldogs have tallied a school record 127 home runs on the year.
- Senior Corey Collins, the NCAA leader in OB% at .591, reached base in four of his six plate appearances with three walks and a two-run home run.
UP NEXT
Georgia (36-12, 14-11 SEC) continues the SEC series against USC Friday with first pitch set for 5:32 p.m. ET. The game will be available on the SEC Network and the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network.
