One of Georgia baseball’s mottos is “feed the trees.”
The trees that line Foley Field aren’t hurting for calories these days.
In Game 4 of the Athens Regional, Georgia hit five home runs and got a strong performance from its bullpen to defeat Liberty 6-2 Saturday. The No. 3 national seed Bulldogs will head to the finals, set to face the winner of Liberty-Boston College at 5 p.m. Sunday.
They’re one win away from clinching the Athen Regional and advancing to an NCAA Tournament Super Regional, which they would also host in Athens.
With the regional being double elimination, if Georgia should lose on Sunday, they would play again on Monday.
The Bulldogs tied a program record with nine home runs in Friday (and Saturday morning’s) weather-interrupted 18-2 win vs. LIU, also breaking the program’s single-season record for home runs. With Saturday’s additions, Georgia has now hit a Division l-best 163 homers.
Tied at 2-2 in the third, solo home runs from left fielder Kenny Ishikawa and second baseman Ryan Wynn gave Georgia a two-run lead. They added two more by center fielder Rylan Lujo in the sixth and first baseman Brennan Hudson in the ninth to give Georgia a 6-2 advantage. Only one of the Bulldogs’ homers wasn’t a solo shot, with catcher Daniel Jackson scoring leadoff hitter third baseman Tre Phelps.
That was good for Jackson’s 29th home run, moving him to second place for most home runs in a single season at Georgia (behind Charlie Condon’s 37 in 2024).
Georgia starter Dylan Vigue struggled, giving up one earned run and walking three in 1 1/3 innings, walking two to put runners on first and second in the second inning before being pulled in favor of reliever Matt Scott.
Scott held Liberty scoreless, walking three and striking out four in five innings to earn the win. Justin Byrd got the save, allowing zero runs, walking one and striking out four in 2 2/3 innings pitched.
“I thought what Matt did today was elite,” Georgia coach Wes Johnson said. “It’s what big-time players do. Matt came in the game, things were a little sideways. There was some momentum leaving our side. Sometimes as a coach, you have to go out there and make a change. We did. Our team believes in Matt so much. We just do. He believes in himself. You want guys in the game when you need to stop momentum like Matt.”
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