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BSB: Dawgs Take Game One in Slugfest
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.
Fast Facts
• 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.
Key Quotes
Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson
Opening Statement…
“I thought that’ll go down probably, what do they call it on ESPN, an instant classic. Fun ballgame to be a part of. We can stand up here for a long time and go back through a lot of plays. But you look at it, I want to tip my hat to Joey [Volchko]. I thought he was just going out there, continuing 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. It’s evident of whatever it was, 11 or 12 homers. I thought there at the end, Justin [Byrd] came in and attacked the strike zone, got us out of it. On the offensive side, the guy to my left [Micheal O’Shaugnessy] is another guy we could sit up here and do a complete segment on, just coming out, being ready. Two left-on-left homers today. It’s really hard to do against this club. I thought all in all, our defense was fine. We had a lot of really gritty 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.”
#5 Justin Byrd | R-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 [Wes] Johnson tells us to. And I think ‘Shaggy’ (Michael O’Shaughnessy) touched on it also; we believe in ourselves. I think that I’ve really started to believe in myself personally, and I think that’s helped a lot.”
#4 Michael O’Shaughnessy | Sr. | INF
On how the team stayed resilient in a 7-0 hole…
“What Coach [Wes Johnson] said, it was a gritty day. I do not think we’ve gotten punched first that big all year. Honestly, we came back in after it, and 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 — if we just scrape one run at a time, take it one at-bat at a time, and just fight every at-bat to make adjustments mid-at-bat, pitch to pitch, we knew we were going to stay in that game and have a chance all day.”
Mississippi State Head Coach Brian O’Connor
Opening Statement…
“Obviously, an incredible college baseball game. Very, very offensive. It seemed like the ballpark played small today. Obviously, we jumped up to a 7-0 lead, and they had the best approach after the first couple innings that I’ve seen against Tomas Valincius. He just had a tough time putting them away. Throughout the game there was multiple pitches that we just didn’t execute. When you’re facing a great offense, if you don’t do that, they’re going to capitalize on it. Unfortunate that we came out on the wrong end of it, but our guys have a lot of pride, and we’ll be ready to play tomorrow, that’s for sure. I would imagine it’s going to be another great college baseball game.”
#21 Kevin Milewski | Jr. | C
On the team’s offensive approach today…
“Offensively, we’ve seen them already good enough, so we knew coming in what [Georgia starter Joey Volchko] had. It wasn’t really much of a surprise. Just going up there, trusting our approach and sticking with it.”
On how he expects the team to respond tomorrow after another close loss to Georgia…
“We’re just going to take it one pitch at a time. Not make the moment too big. Just go out there and keep playing our game, keep going.”
On what the team needs to do to win tomorrow…
“Just go back, rest up. Come ready to go tomorrow. It’s going to be a new day, and they’re going to be tired too. We just have to go out there and just play each specific time.”
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.
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