Scoring eight runs in a game has been a challenge for the Diamond Dogs for most of the spring.

Sometimes, managing to total eight in a weekend has been difficult.

Wednesday night, six outs from a crushing defeat, Georgia put up eight in the eighth inning alone, a season high for one inning and the difference as Georgia (16-26) rallied to beat Western Carolina (28-13), 12-7, in Cullowhee, NC.

The Diamond Dogs spent much of the evening coming back, tying the game at four in the fifth before erasing a 6-4 deficit with the monstrous late inning.

“We didn’t give up a big inning tonight and we had two (of them),” head coach David Perno said on his postgame radio show. “This was our most resilient effort all year.”

After Luke Stewart and Joey Lewis led off the decisive frame with consecutive pinch hits, outfielder Travis Parrott tied the game with a double to left.

An infield single from shortstop Gordon Beckham put Georgia ahead for good.

Stewart, Lewis and Parrott all put up two hits in the eighth, and the Diamond Dogs totaled 16 knocks on the evening.

In their last meeting, Georgia tagged the same number of hits on the Catamounts, but managed only a single run in a 3-1 loss in Athens March 13.

The victory came in spite of another shaky evening in the field, as the Catamounts were able to take advantage of five Georgia errors.

“The one sore spot tonight was the D, but that’s fine as long as you can get it out of your system and overcome it (with run support),” Perno said.

Furthermore, the win also cooled down a hot Western Carolina team that entered the game having won 14 of its last 15 games.

Coupled with a Tuesday night win against Georgia Tech, the Diamond Dogs now head to a weekend series in Kentucky, looking to further extend momentum that ideally will lead them to a berth in the SEC Tournament.

“Just like the losing has been contagious, winning is too,” Perno said. “Hopefully we’re feeling it.”