Preston Johnson pumped his right fist and yelled in exultation after getting Georgia’s Joshua McAllister to swing through strike three.

Johnson had fired his 12th consecutive strike after allowing a walk and a double to start the bottom of the sixth inning in Friday’s Southeastern Conference opener in Athens, Georgia. He struck out three straight batters, keeping UGA’s lead at 4-0 and stopping the home team from blowing the game open.

But the right-hander’s efforts didn’t matter.

No. 23 Mississippi State (11-8, 0-1 SEC) went down in order in the seventh, melted down in the eighth and ultimately lost 11-0 to No. 20 Georgia (15-3, 1-0 SEC) on Friday at Foley Field.

The visiting Bulldogs were in the game until a seven-run final frame for their red and black counterparts put things well out of reach. Georgia scored in practically every form in the eighth: a bases-loaded walk, two fielder’s choices that did not result in outs, a balk, a single and a double.

Before Georgia blew the game open, MSU seemed not too far from making a run to get back into it. Held without a baserunner for the first four innings, the Bulldogs put at least one man on in three of the next four frames.

Each time, Mississippi State failed to score.

The Bulldogs stranded Logan Tanner’s leadoff double in the fifth. They left Jess Davis on at first after a two-out single in the sixth. And they couldn’t take advantage with two on or one out in the eighth.

Much of the credit for that must go to Georgia right-hander Jonathan Cannon, who practically shut down Mississippi State through eight innings. Cannon struck out nine and did not walk a batter before giving way to Nolan Crisp for the ninth.

Georgia produced its runs on a second-inning home run by Connor Tate, a third-inning throwing error on MSU third baseman Kamren James and a two-run shot by Ben Anderson in the fifth.

Johnson finished with his fourth quality start in four tries, giving up five hits and striking out 10.

Mississippi State will send Parker Stinnett (3-0, 3.57 ERA) to the mound at 1 p.m. Saturday for the second game of the series.

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.