ATHENS — In some realms, it’s probably comforting to hear it said of the boys from Army’s West Point Academy, “they came in ready” and “there was no quit in their game.” But when you’re the No. 7-ranked Georgia Bulldogs and you’re a national seed hosting an unranked baseball team in the opening round of a home regional, you would’ve preferred more of an easy go to open an NCAA Regional play.
As it was, the Bulldogs prevailed 8-7, outlasting Army in a much-tougher-than-anticipated game at Foley Field. A sold-out crowd of 3,795 watched it unfold.
“They’re a really good club,” Georgia coach Wes Johnson said of Army. “We were able to take some punches persevere and overcome.”
Georgia (40-15) needed catcher Fernando Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 7-7 tie. Pitcher Christian Mracna induced a hard ground out to second in the top of the ninth inning that left Black Knights stranded at first and second base and sent the Bulldogs into Saturday night’s 6 p.m. winner’s bracket game. There they’ll face UNC-Wilmington (39-19).
In the long run, Friday’s win might well have come down to the fact that Georgia had Charlie Condon and the visitors did not. The sophomore sensation from Marietta, projected to be the No. 1 pick in July’s Major League Baseball draft, continued to show first-timers what all the fuss is about. Condon went 3-for-3 and scored three times on his Division I-leading 36th home run and two walks. He’ll carry the nation’s leading batting average -- .458 -- into Saturday’s game.
Condon hit a towering home run with a 111-mph exit velocity in his first at-bat and double in his second before being intentionally walked the next two times by the Black Knights.
“We went into it saying we didn’t want him to beat us,” Army coach Chris Tracz said. “After the home run and the double, you’re thinking a single would be pretty good. So, we put him on first. But then they put some swings together and they got three when we did walk him.
“He’s as lethal as I’ve ever seen in college baseball. It’s effortless and it’s real.”
It is, but Condon is also human. That was validated in the top of the eighth inning when it looked like the Bulldogs were finally in control leading 7-5.
Playing third base -- he also plays first and all three outfield positions -- Condon has the unfortunate task of having to field a spinning nubber off the end of the bat of Army’s Thomas Schreck. Condon came up with it cleanly and for a brief moment thought of trying to gun out a runner sliding into third. Thinking the better of it at the last second, he tried instead to bluff the throw. The ball slipped out of his hand and ended up in left field.
The Black Knights would score on the error and again later in the frame to tie up the game at 7.
“I did a little arm fake when I saw I didn’t have a play at first,” Condon said. “The game sped up on me a little bit and I made a bad throw. But that’s when you’re glad you have a pitching staff and offensive bats that are going to have your back.”
For a long while, the game was weird that way. The Bulldogs were barreling pitches from starter Matthew Ronnebaum throughout but hitting them right at fielders. Meanwhile, the Black Knights were seemingly cashing in on every opportunity.
Army carried a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning with a couple of early home runs off Georgia starter Leighton Finley. The two-run homers allowed in the first and second inning, respectively, each came from sub.-300 hitters and were only the second of the season for Army’s Chris Carr and Coleson Titus.
Georgia finally tied the score at 4-all in the fifth inning when Clayton Chadwick’s 1-out double scored Dillon Carter. But Chadwick was picked off at second base by catcher Derek Berg and, when Fernando Gonzalez grounded out to short, Army would get out of the inning without further damage.
The bottom of the Knights’ lineup -- none of them hitting better than .244 -- went 4-for-9 in the game and scored three runs and drove in another.
It was the bottom of the Bulldogs’ lineup that finally came through in the end, as it has all season. Gonzalez, the No. 8 hitter, was facing an 0-2 count with one out and the bases loaded in a 7-all game in the bottom of the eighth. He managed to hit the next pitch against a hard, in-blowing wind all the way to the wall in left-center field. That scored Carter from third on a sacrifice fly, which ended up being the winning run thanks to Mracna’s good work in the ninth.
“That what we expect from a guy like Fernando, who’s played in this league for so long,” Condon said. “This entire group of seniors we have is like that. Those are the guys you want up there in high-leverage situations like that.
Having a Charlie Condon is good, too.
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