Jackson sends Georgia Dawgs to Omaha 18 years later

ATHENS — For a moment, it felt like it was happening again.

The home runs kept leaving the ballpark. Georgia’s lead kept shrinking. The ghosts of last year’s Super Regional heartbreak began creeping back into Foley Field.

One year after watching their College World Series dream die on their home field, the Bulldogs found themselves staring at another devastating ending Sunday afternoon.

Then Daniel Jackson changed everything.

The junior catcher crushed a two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning, lifting third-seeded Georgia to an unforgettable 11-9 victory over No. 14 Mississippi State and sending the Bulldogs to Omaha for the first time since 2008.

As the final strike crossed the plate moments later, gloves and caps flew into the air. Players spilled from the dugout and sprinted toward the mound. The sold-out crowd erupted.

Eighteen years of waiting were over.

Georgia had finally punched its ticket back to the College World Series.

“This is kind of a full-circle moment,” senior shortstop Kolby Branch said. “I remember going to bed that night after last year’s Super Regional knowing we were going to Omaha, we were going to win that game, and it just didn’t work out. That’s how baseball is. And so now that we got that second game and now we’re on to Omaha, it’s kind of a full-circle moment.”

The celebration was the reward for a team that spent all season proving it could handle adversity.

On Sunday, adversity arrived in waves.

Georgia appeared to be in complete control early.

The Bulldogs scored two runs in the first inning and two more in the second to grab a 4-0 lead before Mississippi State answered with a two-run homer.

Georgia continued to build its advantage behind a lineup that has terrorized opposing pitching staffs all season.

Senior Brennan Hudson blasted his 21st home run of the year in the third inning, while Branch delivered two more long balls, launching solo shots in both the second and seventh innings. His 18th and 19th homers established a new career high.

Meanwhile, graduate starter Caden Aoki was brilliant.

Making perhaps the biggest start of his Georgia career, Aoki worked 5 2/3 innings and struck out nine batters while helping keep Mississippi State’s dangerous lineup in check.

But baseball has a way of testing teams when the finish line comes into view.

Mississippi State suddenly turned Foley Field quiet.

The Bulldogs from Starkville launched five home runs between the sixth and eighth innings, including three consecutive solo shots in the seventh. One swing after another chipped away at Georgia’s lead until Mississippi State had seized a 9-8 advantage entering the ninth inning.

The scene felt eerily familiar.

The pressure mounted.

The crowd grew tense.

Georgia’s season stood three outs from ending.

Instead, the Bulldogs answered.

With their backs against the wall, Georgia mounted one final rally in the ninth inning. Hudson delivered the biggest hit of the inning, lining a clutch RBI single that scored Ryland Ishikawa and tied the game at 9-9.

The crowd roared back to life.

Reliever Justin Byrd took care of the rest in the bottom half of the inning, forcing extra innings and giving Georgia one more chance.

It proved to be all Jackson needed.

Already one of the nation’s premier players and a finalist for multiple national awards, Jackson stepped to the plate in the 10th with an opportunity to deliver a defining moment.

He didn’t miss.

Jackson launched his team-leading 31st home run over the left-field wall, a towering two-run shot that instantly transformed anxiety into celebration.

The blast put Georgia ahead 11-9 and sent Foley Field into a frenzy.

Byrd then returned to the mound and slammed the door.

When the final strikeout settled into the catcher’s mitt, the celebration that followed was about far more than a single game.

It was about an 18-year wait.

It was about the sting of last year’s collapse.

It was about a team that refused to panic when Mississippi State erased a lead that once appeared safe.

“I tell our guys all the time that toughness gets a bad rap,” Georgia coach Wes Johnson said. “People think it’s some kind of physical element, and it’s not. You have to learn to be capable of great endurance. What you saw today was a bunch of resilient guys, and you saw the fruition of all that work come through.”

That resilience has become the defining characteristic of a Georgia team that now owns 51 victories, a Super Regional championship and a place among college baseball’s final eight teams.

Jackson believes the team’s chemistry is what made moments like Sunday possible.

“The chemistry on our team, it’s hard to talk about,” Jackson said. “It’s just incredible. Winning helps, but everybody has bought in and everybody has found a way to contribute.”

Now the Bulldogs will pack their bags for Omaha, Nebraska, where the College World Series begins June 12.

The destination has been 18 years in the making.

And when Georgia needed one swing to get there, Daniel Jackson delivered the one Bulldogs fans will remember forever