Bulldogs Beat Army, 8-7, Secure Opening Round Win

Friday, May 31

Athens, Ga.

1:00 p.m.

University of Georgia

40-15

Army

32-21

ARMY

Georgia

May 31, 2024 | Baseball

Box Score Game 55 Box (PDF)NCAA Reg G2-UNCW-GT Photo Gallery

Athens, Ga. – The eighth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs defeated Army, 8-7, Friday afternoon in front of a crowd of 3,795 at Foley Field in the opening game of the NCAA Baseball Tournament Athens Regional.
Fast Facts

Friday's games marked the first NCAA Regional to be hosted in Athens since 2019. It was Georgia's first appearance in the tournament since 2022.
Sophomore right-hander Leighton Finley (5-1) took the mound for his 15th start of the year, pitching 3.2 innings, allowing five hits, four runs, walking two, and striking out one.
2024 SEC Player of the Year Charlie Condon (3-3, RBI, 2B, HR, 2 IBB) hit his 36th homer of the year and 61st of his career in the first inning.
Slate Alford (3-5, 3 RBI, 2B) tallied three RBI on the day, with an RBI single in the second and a two-RBI double in the sixth.
Graduate Clayton Chadwick (1-4, RBI, 2B, HPB) hit his 15th double of the year in the fifth inning, scoring fellow graduate Dylan Carter (3 BB, 2 HBP).
A sacrifice fly from senior Fernando Gonzalez scored Carter in the eighth inning to put the Bulldogs ahead 8-7.
Graduate right-hander Christian Mracna (4-2) came in to pitch in the eighth inning and earned his fourth win of the year, with 1.1 innings pitched, one hit allowed, one walk, and two strikeouts

Key Quotes
Ike Cousins Head Coach Wes Johnson
On the one-versus-four seed matchups…
"I think it's good. It shows the depth of college baseball. When you play teams that make this tournament, you're usually able to put three or four good arms, no matter what they've done throughout the year, and put them into the game to hold you or get outs and do some things. A lot of teams take that week off, or even more for them as well, they take that time to reset and allows them to attack us. They probably had a really good idea of what we were going to do on the mound, and they were able to prepare for it for a couple of weeks and they got off some good swings today. I think the biggest thing in these games, I talk to our guys about it all the time, we can't panic. This game is hard. Breaks are going to swing, pressure is going to happen, but it's the team that can stay under control, typically in these one-versus-four games, just stay inside their approach, whether it be on the mound or at the plate and not start panicking. Those are the teams that play well."

#24 Charlie Condon | 3B | Redshirt Sophomore
On fighting back...
"Like Coach Johnson said, all the credit in the world goes to Army. 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. You're not going to go to bat at any given inning and be like, 'We're going to have to wait until next inning.' We have guys going up there ready to give quality at-bats all around. That makes it a whole lot easier."

#45 Christian Mracna | RHP | Graduate
On handling the moment and Coach Johnson's influence…
"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. 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."

Up Next
Georgia will face UNC Wilmington (a 9-0 winner over Ga. Tech) on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+ and the Georgia Bulldogs Sports Network. Army faces Ga. Tech in the first game Saturday at Noon.

Quotes From Game Two Of NCAA Athens Regional: #2 seed UNC Wilmington d. #3 seed Ga. Tech 9-0

Georgia Tech Head Coach Danny Hall
Opening statement…
"We didn't score, obviously, so when you don't score, you don't really have a chance to win. I thought their guy (RJ) Sales did a tremendous job keeping us off balance all night in kind of a critical spot. He was able to get back-to-back punch outs, they had two big innings. The homerun ball by (Bryan) Arendt, that was a big blow to give them the lead. Then we pitched really well, Camron (Hill) threw the ball great and gave a chance, we had chances, just could not muster a hit when we needed to."

#14 Camron Hill | LHP | Junior
On what was effective for him on the mound…
"For me, it was mores just taking in the moment. Coming in, in a big regional spot, kind of sped up on me a little bit, to be honest. After I came in for that second inning, more composed and controlled in the situation, I feel like I was able to go from there."

UNC-Wilmington Head Coach Randy Hood
On tonight's game...
"Great first game for us. We talk about all the time about starting on the mound, defense, and this young man [RJ Sales] to my left was big for us tonight. He showed why he is one of the best starters in the country tonight with his 11^th win, and you always want to be the first one on the board. We got a little traffic on the bases early in the second inning, and Bryan [Arendt] got a slider and put a great swing on it. That was huge. It kind of let the air out a little bit there. From that point on, it was kind of a pitching duel back and forth. Then we got the big inning right there in the eighth. But, to hold that offense to zero runs and three hits in a ballpark like this is, I thought that was an outstanding job by our guys. Between RJ doing the most of it, and then the end right there when they got back to the top, and we got a really good closer. We thought we needed to go ahead and get him in and kind of get us out of that jam. And once we separated, we thought we'll keep Luke [Criag] at nine pitches, so the next game tomorrow if we get a situation against Georgia. All around, outstanding job. So far, it's our 40^th win. That's a milestone sometimes for your program, and I'm just proud of the guys."

#26 RJ Sales | So. RHP
On his performance...
"I felt like I was ready to go from the get-go. I wasn't really nervous heading up to today. I felt like I had been here before, like this is what I've been waiting for ever since I got back from Tommy John. I felt like right from the get-go that I found the strike zone, let my defense work for me, and that's exactly what happened."