Charlie Condon ties 17-year-old SEC mark, lifts Georgia past UT

Charlie Condon may not know who Pedro Alvarez is, but the two will forever be linked in SEC baseball lore after blasting a pair of home runs to lead Georgia to a crucial 9-4 win and a series victory over No. 18 Tennessee.

With home runs Nos. 21 and 22, Condon not only set the Georgia school record for home runs by a freshman, but he tied Alvarez’s SEC mark which the former Vanderbilt star and 9-year Major League veteran set in 2006.

“It’s cool, I guess. It’s just a number,” said Condon. “We’ve got a lot of baseball left to play, but it’s cool to see your name up there. We just need to keep it rolling and get some more wins.”

With two more weekends of SEC play to go--at Missouri and home against LSU--Georgia needs at least three more conference wins to put itself in position for an at-large bid.

Assuming Condon keeps swinging the way he has this year (.410 batting average with 22 home runs and 61 RBIs) the Bulldogs (27-21, 10-14) figure to have a shot.

“I can remember after Tuesday’s game against Kennesaw State, he didn’t have a good game. We won the game, but he was a little down in practice on Wednesday. I was kind of joking with him, ‘You can’t be Superman every day, that would be boring.’ He said ‘Coach, that would be awesome,’ head coach Scott Stricklin said. “So, he kind of became Superman again.”

Condon’s first home run–a solo shot far over the fence in left–gave Georgia a 3-0 lead and enabled the Bulldog first baseman to break the record he shared with Ron Wenrich set in 1985.

His two-run homer in the fifth broke a 4-4 tie and was followed two batters later by Parks Harber, who added a two-run homer of his own with a long shot to right field, giving the Bulldogs an 8-4 lead.

“He’s just a really special player,” Harber said of Condon. I’m just really lucky to hit behind him. His approach day in and day out, just keeping a level head and not shying away from top-level competition says a lot about him.

Condon is also just six home runs behind Gordon Beckham for the most home runs (28) in Bulldog history.

“With me, it’s just trying to flush whatever happened in the at-bat before, even if it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” Condon said. “I just try to approach each at-bat as a blank slate, regardless of what’s happening.”

Georgia led 3-0 and later 4-1 thanks to a pair of homers by Ben Anderson and Condon before Tennessee (32-16, 12-12) touched starter Liam Sullivan for three in the top of the fourth.

A two-run homer by nine-hole hitter Cal Stark accounted for two, before Jared Dickey singled up the middle, driving home Maui Ahuna from second to tie the game before the Bulldogs rallied back to take the lead.

Thanks to Georgia’s bullpen, that would be all the runs of the afternoon for the Volunteers, who had won nine straight before losing Saturday’s game.

The quartet of Kyle Greenler (2-1), Collin Caldwell, Dalton Rhadans, and Leighton Finley shut Tennessee out on just four hits over the final 5.2 innings.

“You start winning games and start winning games in kind of dramatic fashion with guys stepping up, you start to believe in yourself,” Stricklin said. “There have been some times when we haven’t played very well, guys didn’t get the job done and you saw some heads hanging because they’re trying so hard, they want to win so badly. But these kids are tough. Guys have stepped up, but right now our confidence is pretty high.”

Boxscore

Stricklin said pitcher Charlie Goldstein (hamstring) was feeling better Sunday after coming out of Saturday’s game.

“He was actually pretty good today. Obviously, you’re concerned when you see it, but I’d say he’ll be questionable for next week. He could possibly pitch next weekend, we’ll see,” Stricklin said. “He was moving around OK today with not a bunch of swelling. It was a mild injury. He couldn’t have pitched (Saturday), no way, but we’ll see how he feels.”

… Catcher Fernando Gonzalez (elbow) pinch-hit in the eighth inning and drew a walk.

… Pitcher Jaden Woods (biceps tendinitis) will get back on the mound Monday, Stricklin said.

“He’s feeling good. He’s going to get back out there and start throwing again (Monday). Hopefully, he’ll start building it up. Now, it may not be until the SEC Tournament, we don’t know,” Stricklin said. “But he’s feeling good, it’s just that biceps tendinitis, which can be kind of pesky. It just won’t go away, so we’ve got to make sure he’s 100 percent. He’s got a big future we want to make sure we don’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

…Ben Anderson’s home run to lead off the game was the fourth time he’s accomplished that in his career.

…Connor Tate counted two doubles among his two hits, tops in the SEC.

…Georgia returns to action on Wednesday against USC-Upstate. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.

… Dwight Allen II drove in his first run since March 4 after missing most of the past two months with a hamate bone injury.