LEXINGTON ? Josh Morris hit two home runs and drove in six as No. 11 Georgia rallied from six runs down for a 10-9 victory over Kentucky on Thursday night at Foley Field.
The Wildcats led 8-2 after five innings but couldn?t make the lead hold up. Starter Aaron Tennyson was cruising through the first five before finally running into trouble in the sixth. He gave up a lead off single to Gordon Beckham before Morris went to the opposite field for his 19th home run of the season. One batter later, Tennyson was pulled for Matt Robinson, the reigning SEC Pitcher of the Week.
Robinson retired the first three batters he faced to get out of the jam. Sean Coughlin answered for the Wildcats in the seventh with a solo home run, but Georgia answered in the home half of the inning.
Two singles sandwiched around a groundout and a walk loaded the bases for Morris with one out. Robinson appeared to get the second out when Morris grounded weakly to third for a force out. However, the home plate umpire called it foul late to give Morris new life. He followed that by launching a pitch over the left-center field wall to cut Kentucky?s lead to 9-8.
After two more singles, UK turned to closer Andrew Albers, who got the final two outs of the inning with the tying run in scoring position.
Back-to-back singles with one out in the eighth got the Bulldog offense going again, but Albers appeared to be out of the jam when he induced a ground ball to second base. John Shelby took the ball, stepped on second and threw to first, but his throw was high and pulled Ryan Strieby off the bag.
That brought up Morris, who was intentionally walked to put the winning run in scoring position. Bobby Felmy followed with a single up the middle just out of the reach of a diving Shelby at second.
Kentucky (41-12, 19-9) went down quietly in the ninth as Josh Fields nailed down his 14th save of the season. Albers took the loss to fall to 3-3 on the year. He had recorded a win and six saves in his previous seven appearances.
The loss marked the biggest blown lead for a Wildcat team since February 2002 when UK lost a seven-run lead in the ninth inning to Pepperdine in an 18-17 loss.
By virtue of the victory, Georgia (37-16, 17-11) pulled within two games of Kentucky in the SEC East race with two games to play. The Wildcats are one game up on Alabama for the overall conference championship. It is just the second loss for UK in its last 18 games while Georgia won its 13th straight. The Bulldogs have won 10 in a row in the SEC.
Tennyson was in line for what would have been his fifth win, but earned a no decision after allowing four runs on five hits in five innings. Georgia?s Rip Warren got the victory, his seventh this year, for pitching one inning and not allowing a run.
Early on, UK rocked Georgia starter Mickey Westphal, tagging him for seven runs in just three innings. The Wildcats got started early as Coughlin and Justin Scutchfield each had two-run singles in the first as it was 4-0 before Georgia got to the plate.
In the second, Collin Cowgill and Ryan Strieby hit back-to-back homers for a 6-2 UK lead. It was the third straight conference game the Wildcats have gone back-to-back. The home run was the 19th of the year for Strieby, who now has a dinger in five straight games.
Georgia got on the board with two in the second on Ryan Peisel?s two-run double.
Scutchfield struck again in the third with an RBI double that plated Michael Bertram, who reached on a single. That made it 7-2 and all but sealed Westphal?s fate. Scutchfield tied a career high with 3 RBIs and Coughlin added three as well.
The two teams meet in game two of the series on Friday at 6 p.m. Kentucky sends senior lefty Craig Snipp (6-3, 3.23) to the hill against Georgia right-hander Brooks Brown (6-3, 3.53).
