Stupp dominates as Cats take series opener against Dawgs

Cole Stupp delivered an inspired performance Friday as Kentucky took the first game of a weekend series with No. 20 Georgia, 6-1 in Athens.

The Wildcats' sophomore right-hander allowed only one run over eight dominant innings on the mound in his return home to the Peach State. The Milton, Ga., native struck out eight and walked only one batter on the night.

Kentucky (22-9, 7-6 SEC) got off to a nice start in the series against a Bulldogs squad that was coming off an impressive series win over No. 1 Vanderbilt last weekend. Georgia, which just entered the polls on the heels of that performance, dropped to 21-12 overall and 5-8 in league play.

The Cats supported Stupp with a run in the third inning when Austin Schultz singled, stole second, and scored on T.J. Collett's RBi single.

UK pushed the lead to 2-0 in the fourth on a sac-fly by Ryan Ritter after Coltyn Kessler was hit by a pitch, stole second, and moved to third on Oraj Anu's single.

The lead grew to 4-0 in the seventh with the help of a Georgia error and a hit batsman. John Rhodes and Kessler each drew bases-loaded walks to force in runs.

Georgia finally broke through for a run with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning against Stupp, but that's all the Bulldogs could muster. It was the only run allowed by the UK staff in the last 18 innings.

The Cats added two runs in the top of the ninth to put the game away on a Rhodes RBI double and a sac-fly by Kessler.

Kentucky improved to 2-3 on the season against ranked opponents.

The series resumes on Saturday with Game 2's first pitch set for 7 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.