A Super Feeling: Dawgs Win Athens Regional

Tre Phelps hit the go-ahead homer and was not around to see the end of Sunday night’s regional contest between Georgia and Liberty. Neither was Diamond Dawgs’ head coach Wes Johnson.

In the end, Georgia’s determination and a frenzied Foley Field crowd exceeding 3,600 was more than enough to douse the Flames as the Bulldogs won 6-1 to win the Athens Regional and advance to the Super Regionals for the second time in three years.

The Bulldogs were stymied early, their first ten batters being set down by Liberty starting pitcher Cooper Harrington after the Flames drew a first-inning run.

“For those first six innings, I thought their starter came out, threw the ball well. Kind of kept us off balance. I thought we got off some good swings and were just missing some balls,” Johnson said. “That’ll happen when you see a guy like that who’s kind of unique. He had a lower release height, was really commanding his pitches. He kept us off balance but really proud of our hitters. [I] thought we just kept grinding and didn’t give in and made it hard on them.”

That’s when everything changed on multiple fronts at Foley Field.

Phelps parked a Harrington pitch over the left field wall in the sixth inning, but the drama was only starting. Phelps was quickly ejected by game umpires who were also apparently auditioning for the fun police, and Georgia head coach Wes Johnson quickly got the same fate.

Georgia’s skipper had no regrets.

It’s also of note that seated behind the Liberty dugout that Phelps was gesturing toward were…Phelps’ parents.

“As far as the Tre (Phelps) situation, for the record, Tre’s family was sitting up in the stands. Tre was waving at his family. The umpires – whatever, you know I’m not an umpire – they thought he was talking to their dugout,” Johnson said. “Tre got ejected. Tre will miss game one of the super regional. I also was ejected. I have no further penalties. That’s the only statements that we can give and the NCAA will not be making a statement.”

As for what exactly Phelps said? That’s a big mystery.

But what is not a mystery is that the Bulldogs got a career night from starting pitcher Caden Aoki, who gave up a hit and struck out a career-high 11 hitters in six innings, getting out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fifth inning.

“You have to go out there every inning. It’s like a new game every inning, every pitch. You have to stay locked in,” Aoki said. “You’re at your best pitching when you’re not looking at the score. So, I knew the job I had to do, and I wanted to go out there and execute.”

What’s also not a question is that for the second night in a row, Georgia’s bats poured it on late, making it easy for Zach Brown to slam the door with three scoreless innings.

The Bulldogs wore down Liberty’s pitchers with four insurance runs in the eighth, and I began with a heavy dose of poetic justice. Michael O-Shaugnessy, who replaced Phelps after his ejection, slashed a solo homer over the scoreboard, and an RBI double by Rylan Lujo and two-run Ryan Wynn single capped off the big offensive inning.

Georgia now awaits the winner of the Starkville regional and will most likely host next weekend’s Super Regional. If the opponent is Mississippi State, it’ll be a team Georgia is 4-0 against this season.

Go Dawgs!