Georgia defeated Mississippi State 13-12 in an instant classic to take game one of the NCAA Athens Super Regional at a sold-out Foley Field Saturday afternoon.
Joey Volchko started on the mound for Georgia, throwing five innings with six strikeouts. Grant Edwards (1-1), the fifth pitcher of the day, earned the win in relief. Junior Justin Byrd closed out the final inning of play to earn his eighth save. Mississippi State’s Dane Burns (2-1) took the loss after allowing one run on two hits.
Mississippi State (43-18) got an early lead in the top of the second with six runs, including a three-run homer from Reed Stallman. MSU built a 7-0 lead until Georgia responded in the fourth.
Daniel Jackson put Georgia on the board with a solo homer to left in the bottom of the fourth inning, his 30th of the season. Rylan Lujo immediately followed with a blast to right.
Georgia (50-12) continued to tally runs in the fourth after Ryan Wynn scored on a sacrifice fly from Jack Arcamone and a two-run double from Ryan Black that brought home Kolby Branch and Brennan Hudson to make it a two-run contest.
In the bottom of the fifth, Georgia took the lead, thanks to a two-run bomb to right from Michael O’Shaughnessy (2-5, 5 RBI). Branch doubled to bring in Arcamone and Hudson.
Lujo knocked his second homer of the game and 13th of the season in the bottom of the sixth.
In the bottom of the eighth, Georgia reclaimed the lead again with a three-run blast from O’Shaughnessy, his 20th of the season.
The team combined for 11 home runs on the day, six by MSU and five by Georgia. Georgia continues to lead the nation now with 170 home runs on the year.
Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson
Opening Statement…
“I think that game will go down as an instant classic. It was a fun ballgame to be a part of. We can stand up here for a long time and go back through a lot of plays. I want to tip my hat to Joey [Volchko]. I thought he was just went out there and continued to compete after having a tough inning. I thought that was huge for us. Obviously, then we had some guys on the mound that came in and missed some spots. The ball was flying today, and it was evident, with 11 homers. I thought at the end, Justin [Byrd] came in and attacked the strike zone and got us out of it. On the offensive side, the guy to my left [Michael O’Shaughnessy] is another guy we could sit up here and do a complete segment on, just coming out and being ready, with two left-on-left homers today, which is really hard to do against this club. I thought all in all, our defense was fine. We had a lot of at-bats that allowed us to get them into some counts to get off some good swings. I thought Mississippi State had a really good plan against our pitching staff today. We’re going to have to go in and make some adjustments and be ready for tomorrow.”
#4 Michael O’Shaughnessy | Sr. | INF
On how the team stayed resilient in a 7-0 hole…
“What Coach said, it was a gritty day. I do not think we’ve gotten punched first like that all year. Honestly, we came back in after it. We knew Joey [Volchko] was going to go out there and still compete, and everyone coming out of the pen was going to compete. As hitters, we knew if we just scrap one run at a time and take it every at-bat at a time, fight and make adjustments pitch to pitch, we knew we were going to stay in that game and have a chance all day.”
#5 Justin Byrd | Jr. | RHP
On how it felt playing in front of family and friends as a Georgia native…
It’s awesome. I’ve always wanted to come here, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to play here. It’s so cool hearing people from my hometown come to games to cheer me on. It’s just amazing. I think every one of us is prepared each day, and when we practice every week, we do hard things like Coach Johnson tells us to. I think ‘Shaggy’ (Michael O’Shaughnessy) touched on it also; we believe in ourselves, and I’ve really started to believe in myself personally, and I think that’s helped a lot.
Up next, game two of the NCAA Athens Super Regional will take place at noon on Sunday and will be available on ESPN and the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network.