Jackson, Byrd help the Dawgs win another wild one

By John Frierson
UGAA

Around the infield at Foley Field on Sunday afternoon, caps and gloves were scattered, fittingly, like bits of confetti. Meanwhile, in the outfield, the third-seeded Georgia baseball team celebrated an 11-9 extra-inning win over No. 14 Mississippi State that punched the Bulldogs’ ticket to the College World Series.

Georgia superstar Daniel Jackson hit a two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning to provide the winning margin, and Justin Byrd pitched a pair of scoreless innings at the end to secure the Bulldogs’ first trip to Omaha, Neb., since 2008. After Byrd struck out State’s Jacob Parker on a high, outside fastball for the third out, he turned around and launched his glove in the air. Others followed soon after.

“Yeah, this is electric. I’ve never been part of something like this,” Jackson said in a TV interview shortly after the celebration kicked off. 

Jackson’s blast and Byrd’s work on the mound capped a wild Athens Super Regional that easily could have gone the other way, or continued with a deciding game on Monday. Georgia (51-12) won all six games it played against State (43-19) this season — three in Starkville, one at the SEC tournament, and both in Athens this weekend — but none came easily. Georgia’s combined margin of victory in the six games was 11 runs, and two of the games went to extra innings.

In Game 1 of the regional on Saturday, Georgia rallied from deficits of 7-0 early and 12-10 late to edge State 13-12. And the pendulum kept swinging on Sunday. The Bulldogs, the visiting team in Game 2 of the series, led 4-0 after the top of the second inning and 7-2 after the top of the sixth. Then, after State surged to a 9-8 lead going into the top of the ninth, Georgia rallied again.

Facing State reliever Tyler Pitzer, Kenny Ishikawa drew a leadoff walk on four pitches. A ground ball out by Ryan Wynn allowed Ishikawa to move to second, but he wasn’t there long. Brennan Hudson sent an RBI single to right-center field, scoring Ishikawa and tying the game 9-9.

In the bottom of the ninth, Byrd entered the game and got three quick outs, with the ball never leaving the infield. And onto the 10th the teams went.

Tre Phelps reached on an error to lead off the 10th, and then Jackson, the SEC Player of the Year, the slugger who led the conference in nearly every important offensive category, including homers, RBIs and batting average, did what he’s been doing all season. He sent the second pitch he saw from Pitzer over the wall in left field, giving Georgia the lead once again, 11-9. It was Jackson’s 31st home run of the season, and he’s now driven in 86 runs and scored 86 times.

In the bottom of the 10th, Byrd walked Bryce Chance on a 3-2 pitch to start things off. He then got Gehrig Frei to hit a lazy fly ball to Ishikawa in left for the first out. That was followed by a strikeout of Ace Reese for the second out. Noah Sullivan drew a walk to keep State’s hopes alive, but Byrd snuffed them out for good with a strikeout. In two innings of work, Byrd didn’t allow a run or hit, striking out two and walking two, and he earned his fifth win of the season.

Kolby Branch, a senior playing in his final game at Foley, hit a pair of solo home runs and had three hits. Brennan Hudson also homered and had three hits, and Jackson had a pair of hits, the deciding homer, and he scored twice. Eight different Bulldogs drove in runs, continuing the theme of this season. Georgia’s lineup is deep and loaded, with no easy outs to be found.

For Georgia, the SEC regular-season and tournament champions, it was the team’s eighth straight win and its 19th in its last 20 games. The Bulldogs have only lost two games in a row twice all season, and now they head to Omaha as the highest remaining seed in the NCAA tournament.

The Bulldogs had to work their tails off to beat Mississippi State twice this weekend; they had to show resilience and resolve. That they did.

Going to Omaha, Jackson said, “is everything we’ve been working for these last 10 months. … It’s everything we’ve been trying to do.”

The work’s not over, not if Georgia wants to win its first NCAA title in baseball since 1990, but these Bulldogs like the work. And they know what it looks like when it pays off, just as it did on Sunday.

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.