Following a tough midweek loss Tuesday to Central Arkansas in which Mississippi State’s bats took eight innings to come alive, the Bulldogs return to Southeastern Conference play this weekend for a three-game series against Georgia at Dudy Noble Field.
UGA (23-6, 4-5 SEC) is the most prolific power-hitting team in all of college baseball, leading the country by a good margin with 84 home runs. Sophomore first baseman Charlie Condon, the nation’s individual home run leader, has 19 of those long balls to go along with a .481 batting average and 1.130 slugging percentage. And he’s far from the only big bopper in Georgia’s lineup — a batting order that includes a familiar face for MSU fans.
Third baseman Slate Alford started 40 games last season at the hot corner for State and was solid offensively with nine homers and 36 runs batted in, but defense was not his forte — Alford committed 13 errors with a fielding percentage of just .835. He transferred to UGA last summer and got off to a scorching-hot start with three homers in his first two games, and although he has since cooled off, he’s still batting .331 and slugging .577 with eight home runs.
Georgia also has Corey Collins, who has homered 12 times in just 21 games (six of which he didn’t even start) as well as two more power threats in Dylan Goldstein and Kolby Branch. It’s an offense that scores just under 10 runs per game and is fifth nationally in total runs scored.
“They walk and get HBPs, they have a high on-base percentage,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said. “They kind of work it both ways there, and then just wait for the homer… and create some offense that way. They’ve got some good players in that lineup.”
UGA’s pitching, though, is another matter. Left-hander Charlie Goldstein (4.08 ERA in 28 2/3 innings pitched) will start Friday night’s game for Georgia against MSU’s Khal Stephen, and Leighton Finley (5.14 ERA in 28 innings) starts Saturday for the visitors opposite Jurrangelo Cijntje.
Head coach Wes Johnson, who spent 2016 as Mississippi State’s pitching coach, has not announced his Sunday starter yet (and neither has Lemonis), but Christian Mrcana has started a game in each of the first eight weeks of the season and holds a 3.86 ERA. Jarvis Evans, who has made four starts and four appearances in relief, is also an option.
Georgia’s bullpen has been up and down for most of the season, but closer Brian Zeldin (four saves and a 1.23 ERA in 14 ⅔ innings) is a bright spot after transferring from Penn, where he helped the Quakers win the Ivy League title and nearly win a regional last year.
UGA beefed up some of its gaudy offensive numbers against a lackluster non-conference schedule that included a run-rule loss at home to Michigan State. That remains Georgia’s only loss in Athens, where UGA is 19-1 compared to 2-5 on the road. Johnson’s team was swept at Kentucky to open SEC play before sweeping Alabama at home, then blew out Tennessee on the road in the series opener last weekend but lost the last two games to the Volunteers.
No. 23 MSU (19-11, 4-5) may well end up pitching around Condon for much of the weekend, but plenty of other bats in Georgia’s lineup can still beat State’s pitchers. Alford will certainly want to put on a good show in his former home no matter what kind of reception MSU fans give him.
Walks have been an issue for UGA’s pitching staff, so the likes of Dakota Jordan — who was named to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List on Thursday — will need to hold their zones and avoid chasing bad pitches, which Jordan did twice in the Central Arkansas game. Georgia has also surrendered 41 homers, more than any other team in the SEC, so if MSU can put a few balls of its own over the fence, the hosts should be in a good position for a series win.
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