Tennessee’s Stone Lawless was so certain he had homered to give the Volunteers a one-run lead in the top of the ninth inning that he slammed his bat down, turned to his teammates in the visiting dugout and pounded his chest.
Cole Johnson had a different outcome in mind.
Georgia’s freshman left fielder went back to the wall, jumped up and robbed Lawless of a two-run shot, preserving a dramatic 8-7 win by the No. 6 Bulldogs over the No. 21 Vols. Tennessee posted a 7-4 victory Friday night at Foley Field in the series opener, but Georgia won 4-2 Saturday evening before prevailing in Sunday afternoon’s rubber match.
The Bulldogs improved to 17-4 overall and 2-1 in Southeastern Conference contests, while Tennessee dropped to 14-6 and 1-2.
“Georgia made an amazing play to end the game right there,” Tennessee first-year coach Josh Elander said in an interview provided by utsports.com. “I thought our guys competed really well, but we had a chance to put the game away in the fourth and didn’t do that. Stone put a good swing on it, but that guy made an unbelievable play to end it.