May 11, 2001
Georgia’s Jeremy Brown tossed a complete game, striking out a career-high 10 batters en route to leading the Bulldogs to a 7-3 over the Kentucky Wildcats on Friday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium. With the win, the Bulldogs extended their season-best winning streak to 13 games and clinched the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division title.
Brown, a London, Ky., native, scattered 12 hits over the nine frames, allowed only three runs, and did not issue a walk in as the Bulldogs improved to 39-15 overall, 19-9 in the SEC. With the loss, UK fell to 21-33, 6-22 in league play.
UK and UGA combined for 28 hits, 25 of which were singles. The only non-singles were two doubles by UGA’s David Coffey and a double by UK’s Brent Stephens.
Playing in his final SEC series, Wildcat center fielder Beau Moore paced the Wildcats with three hits. Spence Preston and Seth Morris each added a pair of hits for the UK attack.
Coffey led the Dawgs, going 4-for-5 on the night. Doc Brooks, Adam Swann, Mark Thornhill and Blake Bodenmiller also recorded multiple hits games.
UK looked good early, plating a run in the first inning. With one out, Moore singled and stole second. After Vince Harrison struck out, Preston came through with a clutch two-out hit, giving the Cats a 1-0 lead.
After UGA tied the game with a run in the second, the Cats came calling again in the bottom half of the inning. With one out, Austin Madison singled through the right side. Stephens then doubled down the left field line, plating Madison. Spencer Graeter followed with a single to the right-center field gap, scoring Stephens and giving UK a 3-1 lead.
UGA battled back with two runs in the top of the third. Andy Neufeld led off with a single up the middle. Coffey followed with an RBI double down the left field line. After a balk moved Coffey to third, Doc Brooks smacked a hit off the leg of UK starter Rob Corrado, allowing Coffey to score and giving UGA a 4-3 lead.
After a scoreless fourth inning, UGA exploded for four runs in the fifth. The Dawgs strung together four hits to begin the inning, in the process, chasing Corrado from the game. By the time the inning came to an end, UGA had plated four runs on six hits and were aided by a UK error.
That was all the offense that Brown would need as he held the Cats scoreless for the remainder of the game. Brown improved to 7-2 on the season with the win. Corrado suffered the loss for the Wildcats. Corrado fell to 5-7 on the season. Mark Michael pitched well in relief for UK, tossing five innings, allowing only one earned run while striking out four.
UK will look to even the score when the two teams meet tomorrow, Saturday, May 12, at 2 p.m. Cory Hahn (3-5, 5.80 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Wildcats. Hahn will be opposed by the Bulldogs’ Scott Murphy.