The Georgia baseball team made its deepest postseason run in 16 years with a first-year head coach and lineup that leaned on players acquired last offseason through the transfer portal.
NC State Monday night in Foley Field ended the Bulldogs’ memorable season that featured college baseball’s biggest star, Charlie Condon, and a roster put together by coach Wes Johnson and staff.
The No. 10 national seed Wolfpack overcame an early deficit, banged out four home runs and 15 hits while limiting the No. 7 seed Bulldog bats to secure a trip to the College World Series.
The 8-5 victory gave the best-of-three Super Regional series to N.C. State two games to one. Condon’s nation-leading 37th homer to right in the bottom of the ninth marked what was almost certainly his final at-bat as a Bulldog.
Afterwards, the Bulldogs could reflect on how far they came after missing out on the tournament last season.
“You just got a bunch of guys together who started believing in themselves and believing in each other,” Johnson said. “What this group of men did is something obviously I’ll never forget.”
Georgia (43-17) was trying to return to the College World Series for the first time since 2008 but lost its first Super Regional series in program history. The Super Regional format debuted in 1999. Georgia won its previous four Super Regional appearances in 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2008.
NC State coach Elliott Avent is taking his third team to Omaha in his 28th season in Raleigh.
The Wolfpack (38-21) went in 2021 when COVID protocols ended their season and also went in 2013.
“It never gets old going to Omaha,” Avent said. “Yes, I want to go again. Yes, I want to eat at the Drover Restaurant.”
Avent said he has a menu from the place whose website touts its “Original Whiskey Steaks,” that he put up in the locker room about three weeks ago. He’s thrilled that his veteran players get a chance to go this year to Omaha.
“There’s nothing like walking on the field in Omaha, Nebraska for the ceremony which we missed in ’21 walking out there because of COVID,” he said.
The Wolfpack are the fourth ACC team in the eight-team CWS field. The other four are from the SEC.
N.C. State got home runs from Garett Pennington, Eli Serrano, Alex Sosa and Alec Makarewicz and three pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts.
Tre Phelps, the Georgia designated hitter named earlier in the day as a second-team freshman All-American, put the Bulldogs on top 2-0 in the second inning with a two-run homer, giving the crowd of 3,944 early good vibes.
The 6-foot-2, 204-pounder from Kennesaw blasted a 77 mile per hour breaking ball to right center field for his 12th homer of the year. It was the second homer for Phelps in as many days and just to the right of where his shot was a day earlier.
The lead was short-lived because in the top of the third first baseman Pennington smashed his 18th home run of the season, 424 feet to center field to tie the game at 2.
NC State starter Logan Whitaker struck out seven in the first four innings with Phelps the only player to get a hit off him. Phelps singled his second time up.
Meanwhile, Georgia starter Zach Harris (5-2) yielded eight hits and was charged with three earned runs in 3-plus innings but an effective change-up minimized the damage. He was pulled after a leadoff double to Matt Heavner in the fourth.
On came Kolten Smith who was rocked in Georgia’s 18-1 loss Saturday to the tune of eight earned runs before he was lifted in the second inning.
He walked Noah Soles and the Wolfpack had runners on second and third with one out after a sacrifice bunt.
An outside pitch from Smith got by catcher Fernando Gonzalez for a passed ball and the Wolfpack went ahead for the first time. Makarewicz singled past Condon into left field to bring home another run and N.C. State led 4-2.
Smith got out of a jam in the fifth unscathed after the Wolfpack put runners on second and third.
Georgia finally got to Whitaker in the fifth with one out when Clayton Chadwick doubled down the left field line, Kolby Branch singled and Corey Collins was hit by the pitch to load the bases for Condon.
Freshman righty Jacob Dudan (4-2), who had entered with 53 strikeouts in 45 1/3 innings, entered for N.C. State. He struck out Condon swinging on a 90-mile per hour slider and then induced Slate Alford to ground out.
Condon went 2 of 11 in the series. He was hit by a pitch in the back in the seventh by reliever Derrick Smith.
N.C. State extended the lead to 5-2 on Serrano’s home run over the scoreboard in right, but the Bulldogs got the run back in the bottom of the inning on Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly, but Branch struck out swinging with two runners on. The Wolfpack pushed the lead to 6-3 on Sosa’s home run to right high into the night sky.
Georgia had to settle for a run-scoring ground out from Dylan Goldstein in the seventh after Branch’s chance for a three-run homer was caught on the warning track by a leaping Serrano in center field. Makarewicz’s team-leading 22nd homer—a two run shot in the eighth—into the trees in right center gave the Wolfpack more cushion.
“This program has made a huge leap in the right direction,” Condon said. “I have no doubt in my mind that this program is pointed in the right direction and making big steps.”