If Georgia is going to advance past the Athens Regional, the Bulldogs are going to have to find some magic.

Their backs are definitely against the wall.

Saturday’s 12-3 loss to Florida State dropped the Bulldogs (45-16) into a must-win situation, meaning Georgia needs to win three straight games if it hopes to avoid losing as regional host for the second year in a row.

Georgia will play Florida Atlantic Sunday at noon, and will need to beat Florida State again at 6 to force a one-game winner-take-all which would be played Monday afternoon.

"The bottom line is they kicked our tail, they got the best of us tonight, but that's why it's a double-elimination tournament," head coach Scott Stricklin said. "We've got an opportunity to come back tomorrow and play Florida Atlantic tomorrow. We'll do everything we can to win that game, and then try to get another shot at FSU tomorrow night."

Starting pitcher Emerson Hancock (9-3) wasn’t at his best.

The sophomore right-hander has been brilliant, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday as the Seminoles (38-21) pounded out nine hits and scored five times against the Cairo native, enroute to the easy win.

"I felt they had a really good approach against me," Hancock said. "I got behind with some of the batters and I had to fight back into the count. They've got a really good lineup and they had a really good approach."

Although the situation certainly looks bleak for the Bulldogs after falling into Sunday's elimination round, FSU head coach Mike Martin isn't counting his chickens just yet.

"This tournament is a long way from being over - we know that," Martin said. "We know that the host school will be playing tomorrow, and you know we will have to have the same effort in order to accomplish what we want to do. It was certainly an encouraging game for us but we just can't - as a friend of mine once said - we can't just eat the cheese. We have to keep getting better."

Georgia’s afternoon started well enough.

The Bulldogs jumped off to 2-0 lead, getting a leadoff homer from Tucker Maxwell’s 12th home run on the second pitch of the game from CJ Van Eyk (10-3, 8 pitched, 9 hits, 3 runs, zero walks, 9 strikeouts), and another in the third on a 6-3 fielder’s choice by Aaron Schunk as the throw from short sailed over the head of first baseman Carter Smith.

Florida State tied the game in second with a pair of runs, but it could have worse.

After nine-hole hitter Tim Becker homered for the third time in two days – his only three homers this year – the Seminoles put together back-to-back hits to put runners at first and third with nobody out and Drew Mendoza at the plate.

The Seminoles’ leading home run hitter with 16 took a called third strike from Hancock on a 3-2 count, bringing up Matheu Nelson. The freshman fell behind 1-2, but connected on his fourth pitch, driving the ball high and deep to right-center field. Maxwell made his second great catch, wheeled around and threw back toward the infield, with second baseman LJ Talley relaying the ball to first to double off Robby Martin who was already between second and third.

Because the outs were made on a reverse double play, Mike Salvatore was able to tag and score from the third before the final out was made.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, this wasn’t Hancock’s night, and in the fourth, the Seminoles struck for three runs to go up 5-2.

Once again it was Becker – who played club ball last year at Florida State – coming through with a two-run single for the inning’s key hit.

Reliever Ryan Webb’s luck wasn’t any better.

Webb gave up a three-run homer to Smith – his second of the year – for a 10-2 lead in the fifth before Salvatore capped the scoring with a two-run blast in the seventh to account for the final score.

Florida State outhit the Bulldogs 15-9, with the bottom third of the order going a combined 7-for-11 with six runs scored, two home runs and nine RBI.

Webb was ultimately charged with five runs in just one-third inning of work for Georgia, which now must win three straight games if it hopes to advance to next week's Super Regional.

"This team is over this, we've got the pitching to do it, we're still a very talented baseball team that got beat today," Stricklin said. "We can't do anything about this except get ready to play tomorrow."

Boxscore

Georgia will play Florida Atlantic (41-20) Sunday at noon, needing a victory for one more shot at Florida State.

Should the Bulldogs win, Georgia would get another crack at Florida State at 6 p.m.

But first things first.

"We'll worry about Florida Atlantic first and they've got a really good offensive team. Coming in, they were the ones everyone felt was the offensive team coming into this tournament," Stricklin said. "We'll just have to do our best to keep them off balance and have to play some defense. But we've got to score some runs. When you're in the loser's bracket, you've got to score some runs, so offensively, you have to have everybody on their best games to win this thing. But we're going to worry about Florida Atlantic first and hope we get another chance at Florida State."

The Bulldogs will once again be the visiting team after a coin flip at the end of Saturday's loss to FSU.

Stricklin said the Bulldogs will start either Cole Wilcox (3-1, 3.70) or Tim Elliott (6-3, 2.70) against the Owls, who will counter Mike Ruff (6-4, 5.49 ERA).

Schedule

Sunday

Georgia vs. Florida Atlantic, noon

Georgia-FAU winner vs FSU, 6

Monday

If necessary, 4 p.m.

The game was well out of reach by the eighth inning, but freshman left fielder Randon Jernigan certainly didn't play like it.

The former Glynn Academy standout make quite the impression, making three amazing catches, including one where he left his feet to catch to grab a line drive that was headed toward the wall off the bat of J.C. Flowers.

Even FSU coach Mike Martin was impressed.

"I tipped my hat to the young man," Martin said. "That was one of the best catches I've ever seen."

Stricklin could not agree more.

"Randon played his tail off, making three diving plays in one inning. I don't know if I've ever seen that," Strickin said. "The crowd gave him the standing ovation that he deserved, but yeah, he made some really good defensive plays and it shows that our guys didn't stop fighting. They didn't give up and he came in and made three spectacular plays there.