Georgia Baseball weekly recap: Diamond Dawgs sweep the Athens Regional to advance to Supers

Dawgs go 3-0 over the weekend to advance to their first Super Regional since 2008

The Georgia Baseball team completed a massive weekend of play last night as they knocked off the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets by a final score of 8-6 to advance to their first Super Regional since 2008.

The Diamond Dawgs kicked off Regional play earlier on Friday as they took on the Army Black Knights in game one. Charlie Condon got things going pretty quickly for the Dawgs’ offense in the bottom of the first as he blasted his 36th homer of the season to trim Army’s lead to 2-1.

The rest of the game would be back and forth all throughout as both offenses were consistently putting up runs. Fortunately for the Dawgs, they would get the final run of the game in the bottom of the eighth as Fernando Gonzalez scored Dillon Carter on a sac-fly to give the Dawgs the lead and the eventual 8-7 win.

The Diamond Dawgs would pick up play once again on Saturday night as they took on UNC Wilimington for game two. This game would be a different story compared to game one as Georgia stayed in total control all throughout as the offense and pitching staff were on point. Corey Collins and Kolby Branch both hit early inning homers to give the Diamond Dawgs an early 5-1 lead going into the third as the UNCW pitching staff stood no chance against the dangerous Dawgs’ lineup.

The Dawgs’ lineup would add on more runs in fifth, seventh, and eighth inning due to multiple walks and errors by the UNCW defense as Georgia eventually cruised to a dominant 11-2 win in game two.

The Dawgs would cap off their undefeated Regional on Sunday as they took on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in game three in what turned out to be an absolute classic. Georgia jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first as Dylan Goldstein and Slate Alford would both earn RBIs in the inning. Unfortunately, Tech would come right back with some early offense of their own as the Yellow Jackets claimed a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the second. Neither team would go onto score in the third or fourth inning as Georgia would eventually start chipping away at the deficit in the fifth as Charlie Condon hit an RBI single into Center Field to score Clayton Chadwick and trim the Jackets’ lead to 5-3. The Georgia pitching staff would continue to hold Techs’ lineup to just five runs as things still sat at 5-3 in the top of the eighth. That would be until Tre Phelps blasted an absolute rocket over the Left Field wall to bring the Dawgs even closer at 5-4.

Georgia Tech would be unable to score any runs in the bottom of the eighth as well as the Dawgs were riding a wave of momentum heading into the ninth. Fortunately for the Dawgs, it wouldn’t take long for them to take even more of that momentum as Kolby Branch launched the game tying home run over the Left Center Field wall to tie things up at 5-5 as Foley Field was rocking.

Tech would threaten to win the game in the ninth as the bases were loaded with two outs as it looked pretty likely there would be a game four for the Dawgs on Monday. That would be until Chandler Marsh made an incredible sliding catch on first base coming from the mound as the play kept the Dawgs’ hopes alive to seal the Regional in game three. The very next inning in the top of the tenth, the Dawgs’ offense got off to a hot start as runners were at first and second with no outs for Fernando Gonzalez. Gonzalez would manage to put a bunt down for Georgia and the Tech defense pretty much did the rest as the Yellow Jackets’ third baseman made a wide throw to the First Base, the error would bring in Tre Phelps and give the Dawgs a 6-5 lead.

Georgia would add on two more runs in the inning off of a Corey Collins double as they pushed their lead to 8-5 and put themselves in a great position to win the Regional in the bottom of the tenth.

The Dawgs would do just that in the bottom of the tenth as Leighton Finley came in and earned the save to secure the 8-6 win and Georgia’s first Super Regional appearance since 2008.

Georgia will now gear up and host the N.C. State wolf pack for the Athens Super Regional as they will look to win two and advance to their first CWS since 2008 as game one will take place on June 7th.