No. 4 Georgia beats No. 10 Arkansas 11-1 for first SEC Tournament title

HOOVER, ALA. – Fourth-ranked and SEC champion Georgia beat No. 10 Arkansas 11-1 Sunday for its first SEC Tournament title in school history in front of a crowd of 9,320 at the Hoover Met.

Fast Facts
• The SEC Champion Bulldogs made their fourth appearance in the SEC Tournament Championship game and first since 1989. They claimed their first title with a run-rule victory in seven innings. For only the 23rd time in the history of the league that one team has won both the SEC regular season and tournament titles.
• The Bulldogs erupted for five runs on four hits in the first highlighted by RBI-doubles by Rylan Lujo, Brennan Hudson and a two-run home run from designated hitter Jack Arcamone. Kenny Ishikawa added an RBI-single.
• The Bulldogs extended their lead to 6-0 in the second on a Daniel Jackson RBI-single and then pushed across two more run on two hits and an error in the third to make it 8-0.
• Redshirt sophomore Paul Farley (8-1) started for the Bulldogs and got the win as he provided four scoreless innings, scattering six hits with no walks and six strikeouts. The Razorbacks were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position against him. Zach Brown, Caleb Jameson and Jordan Stephens and combined to take care of the final three frames.
• Four Bulldogs made the All-SEC Tournament team including catcher Daniel Jackson who was named the Most Valuable Player. He was joined on the squad by first baseman Brennan Hudson, and outfielders Kenny Ishikawa and Rylan Lujo.
• The start of Sunday’s game was delayed for two hours and 36-minute due to rain.
• The Bulldogs added to their NCAA-leading home run total Sunday with one more to give them 149.

Key Quotes

Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson

On the SEC Tournament title as well as winning the SEC regular season crown…
I remember looking back at when I as at Mississippi State and Arkansas, and we had chances to do it and going, wow, it’s almost harder to accomplish one of those than it is probably to get to Omaha at times just because the league is so unforgiving, and man, nobody in this league lets you up off the mat if you are stumbling or falling down. It’s really, really hard to do. I don’t know how many teams have done this, but it’s really hard to do.

“On today’s game, I thought Paul Farley did a phenomenal job, they were maybe 1-for-7 or 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position in those first four innings. He was able to maneuver and guide through traffic, make pitches when he needed too. Offensively, we jumped on them early with everybody in the lineup contributing.”

Daniel Jackson, Jr., C

On the SEC Tournament title and Tournament MVP…
First of all, I thought Paul (Farley) did a really good job of throwing all of his pitchers in the zone for strikes. He kind of faced adversity really well and kept throwing strikes. For me to be named MVP, I couldn’t be more pumped. Honestly, I feel the most special thing is, I feel like I got this because we won as a team out there. Winning the regular season and winning the tournament, that means more to me than anything. It has been just an awesome regular season and now tournament. It’s super exciting.”

Up Next
Georgia (46-12) now prepares for its third straight NCAA Regional as a likely national top eight seed under Ike Cousins head baseball coach Wes Johnson. Georgia will be one of the 16 NCAA host sites that were announced this evening via NCAA social media, ESPN bottom line, NCAA press release and NCAA.com The field of 64 including the national seeds and pairings will be announced Monday at noon ET on ESPN2.