24 Jackson Chirello homers against West Virginia on Mar. 1 at Mickey Dunn Stadium. Photo courtesy of KSU Athletics
Baseball knocked off No. 4 ranked Georgia on Tuesday at Foley Field, defeating the Bulldogs for the first time since 2021 in a 10-7 victory.
For the first time in the last 11 meetings between the two programs, the Owls emerged with a win over UGA thanks to an early onslaught of offense and bullpen which outlasted the Bulldogs’ late rally.
Catcher Aaron Posey got KSU on the board first with an RBI groundout in the second inning and Jackson Chirello plated Cooper Williams in the third to give the visitors a 2-0 lead in the early innings, helping end UGA starter Thomas Ellisen’s day after three innings pitched.
Nolan Sliver pitched just two innings for the Owls, giving up one hit, no runs while striking out one.
Facing UGA reliever Mason Koswick, KSU added two more runs in the fourth inning to extend its lead to 4-0. First on a Grayson McCollum RBI single that scored Chris Cole, then on a Trenton Lyons fielder’s choice which brought Posey home.
Posey continued to roll in the sixth, hitting his first home run of the year off of Zach Brown in the sixth inning to swell the Owls lead to 5-0.
KSU plated four in the seventh inning, the first two on a James McGee double which scored Williams and Lyons and the following two on a McCollum single to plate Wesley Alig and McGee.
With KSU reliever Ty Bayer still in the game for a fifth inning in the seventh, UGA began to storm back. Bryce Calloway kicked things off for the Georgia bats with a solo home run, his first of the year, before Kolby Branch did the same, bringing in two this time.
An RBI single from Jack Arcamone scored Ryan Wynn to draw the Bulldogs back to within five runs at 9-4.
Williams pushed the KSU lead back to 10-4 by scoring on a throwing error following a Chirello ground ball.
The Bulldogs added a run when Harry Cain walked Daniel Jackson to score Cole Kaniarsky, and drew within 10-7 on an Arcamone single which scored Wynn and Kenny Ishikawa.
Cain didn’t allow a run in the final inning, closing out the 10-7 win for the Owls.
The victory pushes the Owls to 11-10 on the season, with a first-time trip to face conference foe Delaware this weekend.
