Georgia scrapes by Texas to keep season alive at College World Series

OMAHA, Neb. — With nothing but the season at stake, Georgia won in a fashion most unbecoming a team that leads Division I in home runs.

When facing elimination at the College World Series, whatever it takes.

In a loser’s bracket game Tuesday night, the Bulldogs scraped out a 2-0 win over Texas at Charles Schwab Field to keep their season alive for at least one more day.

“We just told our guys, ‘We’ve got to keep battling, man,’” Georgia coach Wes Johnson said. “‘It’s going to be tough to score (Tuesday) on both sides.’”

Georgia (53-13) will face Oklahoma at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday night for the Bracket 2 championship. To make the CWS finals and have a chance at its first national championship since 1990, Georgia will need to defeat the Sooners Wednesday and again Thursday in a winner-take-all game.

“We’ve won three games in a row a plethora of times,” All-America third baseman Tre Phelps said. “Being able to go one inning at a time, one game at a time and having as much fun as possible.”

Their bats quieted for the third game in a row in Omaha, the Bulldogs humbled themselves to play small ball to eke out their two runs against Texas (46-15).

They were enough because of a standout performance by starter Dylan Vigue and a dominating relief effort from Justin Byrd, who closed out the game with a strikeout of Ashton Larson. Bulldogs players spilled out of the dugout and the bullpen to celebrate on the infield, serenaded by chants of “U-G-A!” from the stands.

It was a moment for Vigue, who was effective for much of the season but faltered more recently with a 13.15 ERA in his most recent five appearances, four of them starts. He also suffered a lower-leg bruise when he was struck by a line drive in the super-regional series against Mississippi State.

“Obviously, the past month hasn’t been how me or anybody else would have wanted it to go for me,” said Vigue, who gave the Bulldogs four scoreless innings. “But just to have coach Johnson’s belief in me, that ignites a flame in me and gives me that belief.”

And Georgia, after a dispiriting 4-3 loss to Oklahoma in a winner’s bracket game on Monday that kicked the Bulldogs into the loser’s bracket, will keep going.

Before a packed house on an idyllic Midwestern night, the Bulldogs were the picture of desperation against the Longhorns. Texas starter Luke Harrison had no-hit Georgia through four innings with 10 strikeouts.

The Bulldogs, arguably the top offense in Division I, remained in the funk that had trailed them since their arrival in Omaha.

“He was good mixing different motions, being able to throw in and out of the shadows,” Phelps said. “He was just making good spots.”

But in the top of the fifth in a scoreless game, Brennan Hudson worked a walk on a 3-2 count and got to third without the ball leaving the infield — taking second on just the Bulldogs’ third sacrifice bunt of the season (by Kolby Branch) and then reaching third on a groundout to Harrison.

“We practice bunting, I promise,” Johnson said. “We do. Kolby’s one of our better bunters, so we felt very confident about it.”

Phelps brought him home with an honest-to-goodness base hit, a double to score Hudson and break up the no-hitter. Phelps was 1-for-11 with four strikeouts in Omaha when he came to the plate.

“It was like, ‘Lets’ get the next at-bat and keep having fun and good things will probably happen,’” Phelps said. “‘If they don’t, they don’t. Let’s just keep having fun.’”

Did it help that, throughout that half-inning, Bulldogs relievers stood up against the right-field fence in their bullpen, arms and legs splayed to form a series of X’s, in an attempt to portray the trees beyond the right-field wall at Foley Field?

It did not hurt.

The Bulldogs added a second run against national stopper of the year Sam Cozart in the seventh. Ryan Black led off with a single that was first ruled a catch and then overturned to a hit on a Georgia challenge. Phelps hit a seeing-eye single that advanced Black to third. Black scored on a sacrifice fly to shallow left, scoring on a headfirst dive just ahead of the throw.

The pair of cobbled runs were enough because of Vigue keeping the Longhorns scoreless in his four innings (two hits, eight strikeouts and two walks) and Byrd taking the baton for the final five innings, matching his season high.

“It wasn’t our night,” Texas coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “We pitched and played defense well enough to win this game; we just didn’t execute well on offense. And Georgia’s pitching was outstanding.”

Georgia is now one of the last four teams standing, joining Oklahoma in Bracket 2 and North Carolina and West Virginia in Bracket 1. (The Tar Heels need to win once to advance.)

Beating the scorching-hot Sooners twice will be a tall order, particularly as they were off Tuesday and only need to win once to end Georgia’s season.