Georgia Baseball weekly recap: Dawgs’ incredible season comes to an end following series loss to N.C. State in Supers

Georgia falls just short of Omaha in game three of Athens’ Super Regional

The Georgia Diamond Dawgs’ incredible season came to an end last night as they fell to the Wolfpack of N.C. State in game three of the Athens’ Super Regional by a final score of 8-5.

Game one of this series kicked off Saturday afternoon as it was a game the Dawgs would’ve loved to have had back as it was total domination by the Wolfpack. N.C. State put on an absolute clinic at the plate as the Wolfpack scored a total of eighteen runs with eleven of those runs coming across in the second inning. With the Dawgs’ pitching staff struggling, the offense would follow suit as Georgia would squeeze out just one run as they suffered a disappointing 18-1 loss.

Following the rough game one loss, Georgia would look to bounce back in game two on Sunday and fortunately, they would do just that. Slate Alford would get the party started for the Dawgs in the top of the first as he blasted a 2-run shot to give Georgia the early 2-0 lead.

A couple of innings later in the top of the third, Tre Phelps crushed a long ball of his own for a 3-run shot to extend Georgia’s lead to 5-0.

The Dawgs would add on more runs in the top of the fourth following multiple hits and some good fortune as they pushed things up to 8-0. A couple of innings later in the sixth, Paul Toetz would get in on the home run action as he roped Georgia’s third homer of the game to continue to pour it on the Wolfpack with the score now at 9-0.

The Dawgs would push their lead up to double digits in the top of the seventh as Fernando Gonzalez brought in Clayton Chadwick on an RBI single to put things at 10-0. Leighton Finley would see his day on the mound come to an end in the bottom of the seventh as he was nothing short of solid in game two. In 6.2 innings of work, Finley racked up five strikeouts and allowed just one run on eight hits and two walks. An inning later in the eighth, Corey Collins would cap things off offensively for the Dawgs as he shot an absolute laser over the Right Field fence for a solo homer to give the Dawgs the 11-1 lead and the eventual 11-2 game two win.

Following the Georgia win on Sunday, it all came down to a winner take all game three on Monday night. The Dawgs would start quickly in this one as Freshman, Tre Phelps continued his impressive Super Regional by torching a 1-2 curve-ball over the Center Field fence to give Georgia the early 2-0 lead.

Unfortunately for the Dawgs, N.C. State’s bats would come to life in game three as they brought across runs in the third, fourth, and sixth inning to take a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth. Georgia would not go down easy though as they began to chip away at the deficit in the bottom of the sixth as Clayton Chadwick brought in Tre Phelps on a sac-fly to put the score at 5-3. Just when it seemed as if Georgia was going to mount a comeback, the Wolfpack’s bats would put together more runs of their own as Kolten Smith gave up an absolute moonshot to Alex Sosa to extend N.C. State’s lead to 6-3 in the seventh.

The Dawgs’ lineup still refused to lay down though as they brought things within two once again in the bottom of the seventh as Dylan Goldstein scored Corey Collins on a ground-ball out to put the score at 6-4.

Though the Dawgs were giving it their all offensively to complete the comeback, Georgia’s pitching just couldn’t keep N.C. State’s offense at bey. Brian Zeldin would give up a 2-run home run off the bat of Alec Makarewicz in the bottom of the eighth as you could feel all the air leave Foley Field as the Dawgs were now down four runs heading into the ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Dawgs’ offense was still giving it their all as Charlie Condon hit his 37th home run of the season in what would end up being the final at-bat of his illustrious UGA career.

The Dawgs would be unable to put together any more runs in the ninth though as their beyond impressive season came to an end.

Though a trip to Omaha would have been incredible for the program and Dawg Nation, it is still worth admiring how truly great this season of Dawgs’ baseball was as Coach Wes Johnson and this Georgia team exceeded expectations in year one. With that being said, it certainly feels like this is just the beginning of many great things to come with this newly revived Diamond Dawgs program. Go Dawgs!