The Arkansas Razorbacks made sure they didn't lose an SEC baseball series for the first time in eight weeks.
Arkansas beat Georgia 8-1 Saturday before an announced crowd of 2,311 at Foley Field in Athens, Ga., in the regular-season finale to take 2 of 3 games from the Bulldogs.
The No. 20 Razorbacks (33-20, 17-12 SEC) haven't dropped an SEC series since losing their third game against LSU, 7-4, in Fayetteville March 21.
Arkansas won seven of its last eight SEC series and split two games against Tennessee at home in a rain-shortened series last weekend.
Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn praised the team's SEC turnaround when he talked to the Razorbacks after Saturday's game.
"I made the comment that we started off 1-5 and now we're 17-12, and this isn't an easy league to go through," Van Horn said. "We started pitching better, had some different guys in the lineups and we stuck together."
The Razorbacks eliminated Georgia (26-28, 10-19) from contention for the SEC Tournament.
Georgia won Thursday night's opener 10-1 before Arkansas evened the series with a 9-0 victory Friday night.
"I told our team on Thursday night that we're going to find out what we're all about the next day," Van Horn said. "That's not the first time I've said that this year. We've had it handed to us a few times, but every time we seem to bounce back."
Arkansas went into Saturday's game already having clinched the No. 5 seed in the SEC Tournament, but not having a chance to be among the top four seeds that receive a first-round bye. Georgia needed to win to assure itself a spot in the tournament.
"We didn't really have a whole lot to play for, but getting off to a great lead helped us relax and we pitched well and fielded well," Van Horn said.
Arkansas built an 8-0 lead against Georgia starter Robert Tyler (1-1), a sophomore right-hander who pitched for Van Horn on Team USA last summer but was making just his third SEC appearance after being sidelined for several weeks by a forearm strain.
Tyler allowed 6 hits and 8 runs, 6 earned, in 2 2/3 innings.
"I thought they had a really good approach against Robert," Georgia Coach Scott Strickland said. "They put some pressure on him and put the ball in play. They got some bounces, but they had some hard hit balls, too. They just outplayed us these last two games.
"It's a long season and sometimes it seems like it comes down to the last day, and this is certainly the case, but all of the games before this put us in this spot."
Arkansas sophomore center fielder Andrew Benintendi went 2 for 3 and finished the regular season with a .415 batting average to win the SEC batting title. He has reached base in 41 of his past 59 plate appearances.
Razorbacks designated hitter Brett McAfee went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and scored 2 runs. Catcher Carson Shaddy was 1 for 3 with 2 RBI, and right fielder Tyler Spoon was 1 for 4 with 2 RBI and 2 runs.
Arkansas pitchers James Teague, Jackson Lowery, Josh Alberius and Zach Jackson combined to hold Georgia to 1 run and 6 hits with 1 walk and 10 strikeouts.
Teague (4-3) started and went 4 1/3 innings with allowing a run. He was credited with the victory because he was on a predetermined pitch count. He had 40 strikes on 59 pitches.
Van Horn made the decision to start Teague after using Dominic Taccolini -- one of the Razorbacks' SEC starters -- in relief against Creighton Tuesday night and against Georgia Friday night.
"James did a tremendous job for us," Van Horn said.
Arkansas took a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Clark Eagan led off with an infield single and went to second when Benintendi drew a walk. Spoon hit a two-run double. He went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Rick Nomura's sacrifice fly.
The Razorbacks made it 5-0 in the second inning on singles by McAfee and Michael Bernal, Shaddy's RBI groundout and Joe Serrano's RBI double.
McAfee hit a two-run single and Shaddy had an RBI single in the third inning when Arkansas pushed its lead to 8-0.
Georgia scored its run in the sixth inning when Jared Walsh hit a triple off Lowery and scored on a groundout by Mitchell Weber.
The Razorbacks, who are 8-1 in their past nine road games, are holding out hope a strong showing at the SEC Tournament might allow them to host an NCAA regional.
"We're playing well right now," Van Horn said. "I think we've done a lot, but we've still got a little more to do. If we win a few ballgames, you never know."
Sports on 05/17/2015