ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia is the overall No. 7 seed for the NCAA Division I baseball tournament, but Army took the battle to the Bulldogs on Friday afternoon in the opening game of their Athens Regional.
The hosts didn’t let the early challenge shake them, though, overcoming a three-run deficit to win 8-7 against the visitors from West Point, New York, and take the first step toward securing a spot in next week’s best-of-three super regionals.
Fernando Gonzalez’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly to deep left field drove in the decisive run in the bottom of the eighth inning for Georgia (40-15), which is seeded No. 1 within its four-team regional as the program makes its 15th NCAA tourney appearance but first under head coach Wes Johnson, who took over in the offseason after serving as the pitching coach for reigning national champion LSU last year.
Sophomore third baseman Charlie Condon hit his NCAA-leading 36th home run while going 3-for-3 with two walks and scoring three times to help the Bulldogs rally after trailing 4-1 in the third inning, and Slate Alford added three hits and drove in three runs, including a two-RBI double that put the Bulldogs ahead 6-5 in the sixth inning.
The game wasn’t decided until the top of the ninth, when Army pinch-hitter Ethan Ellis grounded out to Alford at second base with runners on first and second.
“All the credit in the world goes to Army,” Condon said in postgame remarks posted to Georgia’s athletic website. “They had us on the ropes for the whole game. There’s not a lot of quit in those guys. We always want to come out and set a strong tone offensively and set the pace for the game. When they throw a punch early like that, it tests what you have in the dugout.
“I think the moral of the story today for us and for so many games that we’ve had this year is just the offensive production one through nine. There’s not a lull in this lineup.”
AP photo by Stew Milne / Army's Chris Barr (15) rcelebrates with his team after hitting a home run against Georgia on Friday in the opening game of the NCAA tournament's Athens Regional.Chris Barr and Coleson Titus hit two-run home runs for Army (31-22), which is the No. 4 seed in the Athens Regional behind the Bulldogs, No. 2 UNC Wilmington and No. 3 Georgia Tech. The Black Knights are making their sixth consecutive NCAA tourney appearance and the program’s 13th overall, but to secure their first trip to a super regional, they’ll have to come through the losers bracket this weekend in Athens.
Georgia reliever Christian Mracna (4-2) picked up the win Friday after entering with the game tied at 7 with two outs in the top of the eighth and a runner on third. After walking the first batter he faced, Mracna struck out William Parker to end the inning and the threat.
“It was a high-leverage moment, for sure, but I know how much it meant to the team and how hard we worked for those moments,” Mracna said. “I really tried to just do my best out there. We’ve been preparing all year for moments like that, so I didn’t feel rushed or anything at all.”
After retiring the first batter in the ninth, Mracna allowed a walk and a single before escaping further damage with a flyout and a game-ending groundout.
The losing pitcher was Andrew Berg (5-3). He entered in the eighth and opened by getting Alford to ground out, but after issuing a walk and hitting two batters to load the bases, Berg was pulled. Steven Graver gave up the sac fly by Gonzalez before striking out Kolby Branch to keep the Black Knights in range.
Army is 5-25 overall in NCAA tournament play and has lost 11 straight such games since a 5-1 win against North Carolina State in 2018.
In the regional’s second matchup, UNCW beat Georgia Tech 9-0, with the Seahawks (40-19) scoring four runs in the fourth and the rest in the ninth to force the Yellow Jackets (31-24) into an elimination game against Army at noon Saturday.
Georgia and UNCW will meet at 6 p.m., with the winner securing a spot in Sunday’s championship final and needing just one more victory to advance to super regional play.
AP photo by Stew Milne / Georgia's Christian Mracna pitches in relief during the opening game of the NCAA tournament's Athens Regional on Friday. Mracna picked up the win after working the final 1 1/3 innings of the Bulldogs' 8-7 victory.The Southeastern Conference qualified 11 teams for this year's NCAA tourney, breaking the league's record by one, and the Bulldogs were part of an impressive 9-2 showing for the conference Friday. Joining Georgia as SEC winners were overall No. 1 seed Tennessee, No. 2 Kentucky, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 5 Arkansas, Florida, LSU, Mississippi State and South Carolina.
The only SEC teams that will be facing elimination on Saturday are Alabama, which lost 8-7 to UCF in the Tallahassee Regional at Florida State, and Vanderbilt, which lost 13-3 to Coastal Carolina at the Clemson Regional.
In Alabama's loss, UCF pinch-hitter Andrew Sundean's RBI single with two outs in the top of the ninth broke a 7-all tie and held up as the Knights (36-19), seeded second among the Tallahassee Regional's four teams, held off the Crimson Tide (33-24), the No. 3 seed.
Jack Zyska led the inning off with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Danny Neri. After Alabama reliever Alton Davis II got the second out on a fly ball, Sundean sent a single to left to bring home Zyska with the winning run. Alabama got a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth, but UCF reliever Kris Sosnoski got William Hamiter on a groundout to end the game.
It was a back-and-forth game, with Kade Snell giving Alabama a 3-2 lead with a three-run homer in the first. UCF rallied with for a 6-5 lead in the fifth on RBI doubles by Matt Cedarburg and Zyska.
Alabama tied the game a final time at 7-7 on Hodo's RBI single in the eighth.
UCF will take on site host Florida State (43-18), the NCAA's No. 8 seed, on Saturday. The Seminoles opened with a 7-2 victory over Stetson earlier Friday.
Alabama plays the Hatters (40-21) to avoid elimination.
Sosnoski (1-0) pitched the final two innings for the victory. Davis (4-2) took the loss for Alabama.