In back-to-back nights, Georgia’s baseball team has beaten arch-rivals Clemson and Georgia Tech in convincing victories that have restored life to its season.

Last night in Atlanta — fresh off a 9-3 victory over No. 20 Clemson (27-13-1, 5-7 ACC) — Georgia (21-20, 4-14 SEC) pounded out six extra base hits and starting pitcher Paul Lubrano pitched into the sixth to lead the Diamond Dogs to a 8-4 win over fourth-ranked Georgia Tech (32-8, 11-1 ACC).

For the second consecutive night, Georgia received a strong performance from its starting pitcher, which, according to Georgia head coach David Perno, is the key to winning.

“There is no question — it’s about starting pitching,” said Perno to AM 960 The Ref in his postgame show. “They sat the tempo. Paul Lubrano pitched a tremendous game and, boy, isn’t Will Startup something?’”

After Lubrano exited in the sixth with a 6-4 lead, Perno turned the game over to the true freshman Startup.

Startup worked the final 3.1 innings and struck out a career high six Yellow Jacket hitters to earn the first save of his career. Lubrano earned the win to improve to 3-3 on the season.

“We had all the answers tonight,” Perno told The Ref. “Whenever they threatened, we answered.”

The top of Georgia’s batting order did a great job all night of setting the table for the rest of the lineup.

The tandem of Jasha Balcom leading off and David Coffey hitting second reached base in 7 of 10 trips to the plate.

Josh Smith gave Georgia a 3-2 lead it would not relinquish in the fourth when he hit a two run home run, which is his first of the season.

The sophomore from Athens now has two career homers, both of which came at Tech’s Russ Chandler Stadium.

“That was a big home run,” Perno told The Ref. “I liked that at bat. Josh was patient and worked the count in his favor and took advantage of the situation.”

After striking out in his first two at bats, Lee Mitchell proved why he is Georgia’s third hitter in the lineup night in and night out.

In Mitchell’s next three at bats, the junior from Cartersville drove in runs in both the fifth and seventh inning on sacrifice-fly RBI shots that were deep enough to the outfield to score runners on third. The sac-fly in the seventh put Georgia ahead 6-3..

After Tech cut Georgia’s lead to 6-4 in the eighth, Coffey smacked a two-out double down the right field line.

Mitchell, who is the team leader in home runs (8) and RBI (43), drilled an opposite field home run to right to give the Bulldogs some insurance and extend the lead to 8-4.

The Bulldogs had two doubles, two triples, and two home runs on the evening.

“The two triples were big,” said Perno on his postgame show. “The power is starting to show up and so is our overall execution.”

Coffey raised his team-best batting average to .382 with a 4-for-5 performance that was a homer shy of the cycle. The junior from Perry had two singles, a double and a triple ,to go along with two runs scored and an RBI.

Georgia returns to action this weekend against fellow cellar-dweller Kentucky for a battle to see who can move up in the SEC Eastern Division standings.