There will be one more game at Foley Field in 2024.

Georgia took down North Carolina State by a score of 11-2 on Sunday afternoon in Athens. The win forces a Game Three tomorrow, with the winner moving on to the College World Series in Omaha.

"My message won’t change tomorrow," Georgia head coach Wes Johnson said after the game. "It’s the same it’s been for these guys: ‘Hey, it’s another game tomorrow.’ And you better be locked in on both sides of the baseball, be focused-up. If we do that, it’s going to put us in position to have success."

Leighton Finley turned in arguably his best collegiate performance in the biggest start of his life.

The sophomore pitcher completed a career-high 6.2 innings. He allowed just one earned run while scattering eight hits, striking out two and walking five.

"Coming in, I knew NC State had a lot of lefties and knew my changeup needed to be really good for me to have success," Finley said. "We saw yesterday, those guys can hit so pitching to them is not an easy task. I knew I had to hit my spots best I could."

Finley said he tried to think of this as just another game. But he has now made a habit of coming up huge in clutch situations.

In the regional against Georgia Tech last weekend, Finley recorded the save in the regional-clinching game. He then kept Georgia's season alive with a masterpiece on Sunday.

"I tried to bring that same intensity that I did the game against Tech," Finley said. "I mean, these games are really big games, so we’ve got to do our best. I tried to bring what I had.”

Georgia wasted no time in shaking off the hangover from the Game One rout.

Second baseman Slate Alford cracked a two-run home run over the left field fence in the first. Georgia took a 2-0 lead three batters into the game.

Johnson moved Alford up to the third spot in the order after he hit cleanup yesterday. The matchup with North Carolina State's left-handed starter Dominic Fritton led to the move.

"I feel like it sparked us for sure," Alford said of his home run. "Like I said, I'm just blessed to be in that situation. We have plenty of guys that do the same thing in those situations. Just blessed that it was me in that time."

The next inning saw freshman Tre Phelps come up with two runners on. He promptly blasted a pitch over the batter's eye in center field to put the Bulldogs up 5-0.

Phelps, who bobbed his head along with his walk-up song before every at-bat, credited the team's veterans with instilling confidence in him and his teammates.

"I think it all starts with the older guys," Phelps said. "This is a really old team of fourth and fifth years. They give the younger guys confidence to be able to believe in the next guy and that he can do just as good as you can. I believe that's why we've had a lot of team success this year."

Overall, a Georgia offense that managed just four hits in Game One pounded out 15 knocks in Game Two. The Bulldogs scored in six of nine innings at the plate.

"I said yesterday I thought we hit some balls really hard yesterday," Johnson said. "Because our guys care, because they want to win, because they feel like they’re never out of it, I thought we got a little big yesterday. I made the comment we had a couple of guys trying to hit 10-run homers. It’s not possible. And so today the message was, ‘just get back to your approach.’ These guys stayed inside their approach."

Finley's effort, as well as 2.1 solid innings of relief from Brian Zeldin, leaves the Georgia bullpen in good shape for Game Three.

"It puts us in position to use every guy we've got tomorrow except (Finley)," Johnson said. "That will be our mindset. People are going to ask who. It will be whatever it takes."

As for a starter, that decision is still up in the air.

“We’ll sit down and look at things," Johnson said. "We’ve been really good at matching up best we can throughout the year and we’ll do that tomorrow."

- Corey Collins hit his 20th homer of the season, joining Charlie Condon as Bulldogs to hit that mark in 2024. This is the first season in Georgia history with multiple players reaching 20 home runs.

- Catcher Fernando Gonzalez received some medical attention during his at-bat in the top of the seventh. Trainers appeared to look at his right arm or hand. Gonzalez caught two more innings before being replaced in the ninth.

- Outfielder Dillon Carter also appeared a bit gimpy later in the game after trying to beat a close play at first. He stayed in the game.

- Tomorrow's game will begin either at noon or 7 p.m. The time and TV network will be announced later on Sunday.