The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/9/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Daniel Shirey Freshman short stop Levi Hyam runs the bases after hitting a home run n game two against Winthrop on Wednesday. [Click to enlarge]

Perhaps all the No. 5 Georgia baseball team needed to do was hit rock bottom before it started playing like a top team in the country again.

After losing Game 1 of Wednesday's doubleheader to Winthrop 7-4 consider rock bottom hit. After Georgia's 13-2 Game 2 win, consider it behind them.

"We just played terrible [in the first game]," head coach David Perno said. "We hit rock bottom. We had been scuffling for a week now not taking care of the baseball and like any team I've had. We just had to hit rock bottom and fall flat on your face and realize what it was going to take to turn us around. I was real excited with how we played the second game and I consider the first game to be behind us."

In Game 2, the Diamond Dogs' (26-6) offense exploded against the Eagles (20-11) and played its own version of home run derby as four different players combined to hit five home runs, accounting for 12 of their 13 runs.

"It was great and you could tell just by looking at the scoreboard and when we come out and play our game we are tough to beat," freshman Peter Verdin said.

Georgia took a lead in the first inning when freshman third baseman Colby May scored on a single by junior first baseman Rich Poythress. May, batting in the three-hole for the first time in 14 games, went 2-for-2 in the nightcap and scored three times.

The Diamond Dogs took Game 2 by the collar in the third inning, when catcher Joey Lewis belted a mammoth grand slam over the batter's eye in center field and into the tennis complex to give his team a 5-1 lead.

In the fourth, Poythress hit a three-run home run to center to extend the lead to 8-1 and moved into ninth place all-time in both home runs (32) and RBI's (155).

Lewis hit another home run in the sixth, a solo shot to center to give him 10 on the year joining Poythress (14) and senior catcher Bryce Massanari (10) in the double-digit home run club.

Continued...

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