Diamond Dawgs beat App State

Georgia relied heavily on a late surge in the seventh inning to overcome a slow offensive start to beat the visiting Appalachian State Mountaineers 9-4 Tuesday in Athens.

UGA freshman David Gonzalez was tagged early for two runs on five hits in three innings of work but, the Dawgs’ bullpen righted the ship and only gave up two runs for the remainder of the contest. Blake Dieterich recorded his first win of the 2013 season, pitching two innings of two hit ball, while registering two strikes outs.

In the bottom of third inning, in what seemed to be the start of a rally, senior third baseman Curt Powell hit a two-out double to left field (Georgia’s first hit of the game), followed by an RBI single to right field via senior shortstop Kyle Farmer that gave the Diamond Dawgs their first run of the game. However, even with the Mountaineers practically gift-wrapping the third inning, (one error, a wild pitch and two walks) the Dawgs failed to execute, leaving the bases loaded.

Two innings later in the bottom of the fifth, leftfielder Justin Bryan connected on a deep, one-run homer over the left center wall to tie up the game at 2-2. The home run was the Lavonia, Ga. native’s first of the season.

Not to be outdone, Appalachian State responded in the next frame (fifth) when Georgia reliever, Mark Mancuso missed his spot on a 0-1 fastball and ASU outfielder Preston Troutman made him pay for it, going yard over the right field wall. UGA outfielder Hunter Cole tried to make a play on the ball, extending his glove as far as humanly possible, but it was just outside of his reach.

When the seventh inning rolled around, a hitting frenzy began in which Georgia accounted for five runs. True freshman Daniel Nichols tied the game up at 3-3 with a two-out single to center, knocking in Curt Powell. Nichols then advanced to second on a wild pitch putting him in scoring position. Senior catcher, Brett Deloach then took advantage of a pitching miscue (wild pitch) by ASU left hander Ryne Frankoff hitting an RBI single to right field that brought home Nichols to give the Dawgs their first lead of the game. Three batters later with the bases loaded, redshirt freshman DJ Smith continued the seventh inning slaying with a two RBI single to center that essentially broke the game open.

The Dawgs also tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the eighth frame courtesy of a two-run shot by Deloach.

ASU’s Ryne Frankoff not only recorded the loss, he took a beating on the mound in the seventh allowing four runs on three hits. Jared Walsh came in to finalize the Dawgs’ victory in the ninth inning, allowing one run on one hit.

The Dawgs’ are back to .500 and have a chance to increase their winning percentage over .500 for first time since starting the season 1-0. Georgia and ASU will play one more game tomorrow at 5:00pm which will conclude the series.

NOTES: Curt Powell extended his hitting streak to 12 games. Nelson Ward extended his hitting streak to nine games. The Dawgs won their first game of the season when trailing after two innings; Georgia was previously 0-4.