Losses End the Georgia Bulldogs Baseball and Tennis Seasons
The Georgia Bulldogs baseball and tennis seasons ended Saturday. The Tennis Dawgs lost in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament and the Diamond Dawgs failed to reach post-season with a final game loss to Arkansas.
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The Georgia baseball and tennis teams took losses Saturday, ending the season for both.
After losing to Arkansas, the Georgia baseball team needed Mississippi State to defeat Tennessee to send the Dawgs to the SEC Tournament. The Volunteers scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to win 3-2 and end the Bulldogs season.
“We had an opportunity to get it done here at home and we needed help and it just didn’t happen,” Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin told John Frierson for Georgiadogs.com. “I feel terrible for our seniors and the kids have worked really hard, but it’s just unfortunate we came up short and didn’t get it done.”
Needing one win to gain a spot in the SEC Baseball Tourney, the Bulldogs lost their last two games of the season by a combined 17-1. The Dawgs lost eight of the last 12 SEC games.
“Lots of ups and downs,” Stricklin said about the season. “When we came here two years ago we talked about trying to be more consistent. That’s the furthest thing from what we were. We weren’t very consistent and it’s going to be a long offseason.”
“When you leave your fate in someone else’s hands, you never know what’s going to happen,” Jared Walsh told Frierson. “It was disappointing to say the least.”
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In Waco, Texas, the Georgia men’s tennis team fought top ranked Oklahoma to the wire before losing 4-2 in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships. The SEC champion’s final record is 24-5 for the season. Oklahoma (27-2) advances to the semifinals to face TCU on Monday. It was the eighth time in ten years the Bulldog Netters won 24 or more matches.
“There is no denying, our guys fought to the very end,” head coach Manuel Diaz told Georgiadogs.com. “Oklahoma just played a little bit better than we did. I am pleased with the way we competed. We could have played a little better at certain points, but Oklahoma just controlled play and dictated play more than we did, and they got the victory.”
The Bulldogs dropped doubles matches on courts 1 and 3, yielding the doubles point to the Sooners. The number one ranked Georgia team of Austin Smith and Ben Wagland lost 8-3 to Andrew Harris and Alex Ghilea on court 1. Freshman Paul Oosterbaan and senior Eric Diaz then lost 8-5 on court 3.
In singles, Axel Alvarez, the nation’s top-ranked player, beat Georgia freshman Wayne Montgomery (24) 6-1, 6-1 in a rematch of the Southern Intercollegiate quarterfinal last fall, won by Montgomery in three sets.
Senior Nathan Pasha brought the Bulldogs within one with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Dane Webb on court 3. Oosterbaan’s loss on court 6 brought the Sooners within one point of clinching the match, and a three set victory by junior Nick Wood again brought Georgia within a point of evening the match. But after a second set comeback from a 5-2 deficit, Wagland double faulted when serving against match point on court 4 to lose 7-5
“We actually looked good in a lot of spots,” Manuel Diaz told Georgiadogs.com. “We had a chance to win the match all the way to the very end. It was Nick and Nathan who put us in that position. We kind of just made a run out of them. Austin was up a set at one point there at No. 2. Ben broke back to get the tiebreaker. We just couldn’t close either one of those sets. We competed well. You’ve got to give the credit to Oklahoma, they played a little bit better than we did. They deserved to go forward and we wish them the best.”
Montgomery, Smith and Pasha will open play in the singles tournament on Wednesday, while Smith and Wagland will play in the doubles championship beginning Thursday.