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Georgia has had an interesting start to the season. They're 14-8 (not too far off from our own 15-6-1), but they have not looked very good at all. They're currently on a three game losing streak that includes two losses to Kentucky where they were outscored 25-10 and a 3-1 defeat by Mercer.
UGA has gone into extra innings four times on the season so far, and they hold a 3-1 record, but their wins came against Mercer, Cincinnati, and Lipscomb with their defeat coming from Georgia Southern. Needless to say, their record isn't all that awe inspiring once you dive into it.
As for their batting stats? Well, those don't break down to be any more impressive either. As a team, UGA is batting .245 and they're scoring 3.86 runs per game off of 8.05 hits per game. At the moment, Mississippi State has a team batting average of .311 to score 7.27 runs per game off of 10.95 hits per game. Georgia has hit 17 home runs thus far on the season, Mississippi State has hit 15. When it comes down to stealing bases, MSU has 24 stolen bases off of 28 attempts, Georgia has 12 off of 21 attempts.
Their three best hitters, Stephen Wrenn, Skyler Weber, and Keegan McGovern combine to have 75 hits. Of those 75 hits, 21 were for extra bases, with six of them being home runs. Wrenn, Weber, and McGovern have combined for 44 RBIs. Mississippi State's trio of Jack Kruger, Brent Rooker, and Jacob Robson have combined for 86 hits. Kruger, Rooker, and Robson have combined for 29 extra base hits with six home runs of their own and a total of 57 RBIs.
When it comes down to pitching, UGA doesn't have a starting pitcher for game three decided at the moment, but their other two starting pitchers are Kevin Smith and Robert Tyler. Smith is the better of the two and has a 1.93 ERA and a 3-0 record. Smith has struck out 20 in 23.1 innings pitched. Tyler, however, has not had as much success as Smith. Tyler's ERA is sitting at 3.42 in 26.1 innings pitched but he's struck out an impressive 39 batters on the season.
The battle for Ron Polk's love will be an interesting one this week and the games will be played on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. After playing Georgia, Mississippi State will head to Pearl to take on Southern Miss before returning to Starkville to host Ole Miss.
If you want to get a preview for your ears, you can listen to our guys over at For Whom the Podcast Tolls discuss this series as well. If you need the links to watch the games and are interested in discussing the games with us live, feel free to join us here.