The Georgia baseball team was beaten by arch rival Georgia Tech on Sunday night but was far from defeated.
The Bulldogs used a late rally in the Athens Regional final to win 10 games and advance to the NCAA Tournament Super Regional for the first time since 2008.Number First inning, 8-6, the feat achieved in head coach Wes Johnson’s first season.
Fernando Gonzalez tied the game with a bunt down the third base line, but third baseman Carson Kearse’s throw was missed on an error, and the leadoff hitter, Tre Phelps, was hit by pitch and scored.
Corey Collins brought in two runs with a double to right-center field.
Friday’s starter, Layton Finley, came in with no outs and runners on first and second and loaded the bases after allowing a leadoff hitter singled to load the bases. He then struck out Drew Burress and got Matthew Ellis to hit a sacrifice fly. John Giesler grounded out to third base for the out, and Finley threw his glove almost to the Bulldogs dugout as the team celebrated in left field.
Georgia (42-15), the No. 7 seed nationally, will play No. 10 seed North Carolina State at home in a best-of-three series with the winner advancing to the College World Series. The Super Regionals will be played Friday through Sunday or Saturday through Monday.
Georgia needed to win Sunday to advance, but Georgia Tech (33-25) had to beat the Bulldogs twice.
Trailing 5-3 in the eighth, the Bulldogs played what they do best.
They tied the game with two solo home runs, one by Phelps in the eighth inning and one by Colby Branch in the ninth.
The Bulldogs, third in the nation in slugging percentage, didn’t get another extra-base hit until leadoff batter Phelps smashed a 91 mph fastball from Logan McGuire into left field for his 10th home run of the season and cut the lead to 5-4.
Branch tied the game with his second home run of the night, this one a 93 mph leadoff hit to left field off right-hander McGwire.
Georgia Tech, the designated home team, had a chance to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but reliever Chandler Marsh came to the mound and got North Carolina State transfer Peyton Green to ground out with two outs and a full count. After Charlie Goldstein walked the only batter he faced, Drew Burress, and then left the game with an apparent elbow injury, Matthew Hoskins took the mound. Hoskins left the game with the bases loaded.
Georgia Tech scored five runs in the first two innings off Bulldog starting pitcher Zach Harris, who struck out six and walked four while allowing eight hits and four earned runs in six innings.
It looked like it might be the Jackets’ night when No. 9 hitter Van Lackey, batting .213, smashed a 94 mph ball from Harris into left field for a three-run homer, Lackey’s fourth of the season.
Left fielder Clayton Chadwick dropped a two-out fly by Matthew Ellis, advancing runners to first and third, and John Giesler singled to center field to make the score 5–2.
Georgia Tech began Sunday’s action with a 3-1 win over the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in a game delayed an hour and 53 minutes because of lightning and rain.
That forced the Yellow Jackets to turn around in just 69 minutes against Georgia.
Georgia State won both games against Georgia Tech during the regular season, including a 9-3 lead in the top of the fifth inning at Georgia Tech on March 1 before the game was stopped due to rain.
Georgia proposed a 12-day timeline for resuming play, but that was ultimately scrapped due to already scheduled games, travel, final exams and NCAA-mandated holidays, Georgia Tech said.
The Bulldogs took the lead in the first inning after Georgia Tech starter Mason Patel gave up six singles and three runs in 4 1/3 innings. Reliever Ben King (3-2) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win.
Corey Collins got his school-record 27th hit of the season. Charlie Condon got a single on a soft grounder through the right side of the infield. Dylan Goldestin drove in the first run and advanced to third base on a fielder’s choice by Slate Alford for the second run.
Georgia didn’t score until the fifth inning, when Condon singled to center field to bring one home to make the score 5-3. Relief pitcher Ben King, who will attend Emory University School of Medicine after this season, saved the day with a fly out to center field to get Phelps out with the bases loaded.
The Bulldogs showed they still have potential.
