Georgia baseball makes College World Series after wild win in extra innings

Georgia has the chance to win its first CWS since 1990. In 2008, the Bulldogs advanced to the finals before falling to Fresno State in Game 3.

The Bulldogs came through in Sunday’s battle despite late-game chaos: Reliever Zach Brown yielded back-to-back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning, narrowing Georgia’s lead to 8-7, and reliever Matt Scott gave up a two-run shot to give Mississippi State its first lead of the day, 9-8 heading into the ninth.

Georgia also committed three errors.

“We talk a lot about toughness ... People think it’s some kind of physical, physical element, and it’s not,” an emotional Georgia coach Wes Johnson said after the win. “It’s just, you have to learn to be capable of great endurance, and understand that our game is really long. They’ve got to get you out. Teams are going to get emotional, those emotions are going to carry you out of what you normally do every day.

“Not only do we talk about it, we practice it, we try to try to give our guys something hard to do every single day, whether it be physical or mental, and you just saw a bunch of resilient guys, and you saw the fruition of all that work come through.”

Georgia’s offense scored at least one run in each of the first five innings Sunday and did what it does best, crushing four home runs and feeding the trees that line its home stadium, responding with the game on the line.

Down one run, first baseman Brennan Hudson’s RBI single scored left fielder Kenny Ishikawa to keep Georgia alive in the ninth, with reliever Justin Byrd getting three outs to send it to extras and holding off Mississippi State in the 10th after Jackson’s shot. Byrd pitched a clutch scoreless ninth and 10th to earn the win (although hosting, Georgia was technically the away team Sunday).

Starting pitcher Caden Aoki finished with 121 pitches, giving up four runs on eight hits, walking one and striking out nine in 5⅔ innings.

Georgia jumped on Mississippi State starter Ryan McPherson early. McPherson, who the Bulldogs had yet to face this season, went 1⅓ innings, giving up four runs on three hits, walking three and striking out one.

Aoki exited with Georgia leading 7-4, and shortstop Kolby Branch’s second home run of the day put Georgia briefly up by four, until Mississippi State responded with three runs in the bottom of the seventh.

“I’ve said it all year, I get chills thinking about it,” Branch said. “But I truly do go home and think about Omaha, and I think about going to that place and taking Georgia back to this place and securing the legacy that Georgia needs to have in Omaha.”

Georgia won an offensive onslaught of a Game 1 13-12 on Saturday at Foley Field, hitting five home runs to Mississippi State’s six, with the teams combining for 31 hits. The Bulldogs committed two errors in Saturday’s win.

This season, the Bulldogs won the SEC regular season title for the first time since 2008 and the SEC Tournament title for the first time in program history. This is a historic offense for Georgia, with a program-record 174 home runs.