There’s a reason first-year Georgia coach Wes Johnson hasn’t felt much stress whenever his team has happened to fall behind.
Considering the way his Bulldogs (12-1) continue to blast baseballs, why would he?
Wednesday night against Stetson was another example as the Bulldogs used four home runs and a five-run fifth to roll past the Hatters at Foley Field, 11-5.
“It’s like a fastbreak offense in basketball,” said shortstop Kolby Branch, who went 3-for-5 with two home runs, including a grand slam. “When one guy gets on, especially with our park, it’s easy; 1-through-9 gets a hold of one and you’re up two. It’s constant. Somebody is going to get it done, and that’s just how this team is.”
Johnson laughed when asked if Branch’s description fit his team, which used three runs in the fifth and five in the sixth to roar back from a 4-3 deficit.
“I’m processing that one right now, but I’ll say yes,” Johnson said. “But here it is, it’s little things with this offense that can get you excited. We’re doing what we’re supposed to do in those situations that are happening right now.”
Georgia, which leads all of college baseball in home runs with 35, saw shortstop Branch go deep twice, including a grand slam, with Slate Alford and Charlie Condon adding solo shots. Condon's home run went a season-long 454 feet with an exit velocity of 112 mph.
Alford, who went 3-for-4 with four RBI, homered for the second straight day after blasting a grand slam of his own Tuesday night against Georgia Southern.
Condon’s home run was his ninth, while Branch’s homer was the third of his career, after the two he hit as a freshman last year at Baylor.
“Games like this just show the lack of panic we have with this team,” Condon said. “Even if bats are slow to wake up, we know we’re going to turn it around because we’ve got enough bats and talents in this lineup that they’ll start falling eventually.”
Georgia pitchers also gave Johnson plenty to smile about.
Six Bulldog pitchers combined to hold Stetson to five hits, but more impressively, they did not walk a batter and struck out 17 opponents.
It began with Christian Mracna, who was making his first midweek start and pitched the best that he has all year.
In four previous appearances, Mracna walked nine in 9.2 innings.
Against Stetson, it was a different story.
Mracna went three innings, only giving up a solo home run to Logan Hughes with no walks and eight strikeouts before Zach Harris (2-0) replaced him to start the fourth.
A pair of strikeouts by Harris highlighted the fourth inning, but in the fifth, a walk and a single was followed by a three-run homer by Logan Hughes to give the Hatters a 4-3 lead.
But the Hatters (8-5) were not up for long.
Alford’s three-run double put the Bulldogs back up 6-4 in the fifth, before Georgia’s five-run sixth inning iced the game.
Josh Roberge, Daniel Padysak, and DJ Radke followed with scoreless innings with Max DeJong giving up a two-out, solo homer in the ninth to account for the final score.
“I challenged them tonight,” Johnson said. “It’s like I told them, we can live with (home runs) as long as we’re attacking the strike zone and making them do it. That’s what we saw tonight from the pitchers.”
News and Notes
…Friday’s game between Georgia and Northern Colorado has been moved up to 3 p.m.
…Condon made his first career start in center field and didn’t disappoint. In the fourth, the redshirt sophomore made it look easy when he made a diving head-first catch to rob Kyle Jones of what appeared to be a sure single.
“I was screaming, don’t trap it, don’t trap it, don’t trap it,” Branch said. “It was impressed. Especially him playing center for the first time.
…Fernando Gonzalez batted cleanup for the first time in his career.
