Pitcher shuts down MSU with a little help from Farmer

An inning after Alex Wood worked out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam, shortstop Kyle Farmer told his pitcher that the offense would pick him up soon.

Farmer provided the lift himself as he slammed a sixth-inning, two-run home run that carried Georgia to a 4-1 win against Mississippi State on Friday at Foley Field.

"Farmer's a star, man," Wood said. "After that inning when we struck out the side and then we went three-up and three-down, we ran back onto the field and he ran by and told me 'We have you.' " Wood said. "Not only did he tell me that, but he goes out there and he does that, so it ended up working out pretty good."

Georgia (12-14, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) hooks up with Mississippi State (19-7, 4-3) again at 2 p.m. today.

"Wood pitched a heckuva game and all the credit goes to him," Farmer said. "When he struck out the side with the bases loaded, we came in pumped up, but we didn't do what we should have done that half-inning. But then as he was running out for the next inning, I said, 'We'll pick you up next inning.' I got the chance to do it. I capitalized on it and it was fun."

Wood (3-3) allowed three hits and one run with eight strikeouts and four walks in seven innings. His moment of truth came in the fifth inning with the game tied 1-1.

Wood bracketed walks to Adam Frazier and Nick Vickerson around an error by Kevin Ruiz to load the bases with nobody out. He went down three balls and one strike to Ryan Collins before rallying to strike him out. Then Wood set down Jarrod Parks and Cody Freeman on strikes to end the inning and keep the game level.

"I got myself into a little bit of a jam with two walks in that inning, but we managed to get out of it somehow," Wood said.

After Wood sa