Georgia turned its College World Series opener into a statement Saturday night, beating Texas 7-1 behind Joey Volchko’s first-career complete game and sending itself into the winner’s bracket. Volchko struck out 15, a career high, and finished with four hits allowed, one unearned run and one walk in a performance that held up even as Texas starter Dylan Volantis was asked to work through a long first inning.
This is why the UGA baseball score was drawing heavy attention right away: the result changed Georgia’s path in the tournament, and it did it on the sport’s biggest stage. Georgia’s offense did enough early and then added on, with Rylan Lujo going 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, a double and three RBIs while the team took advantage of Texas mistakes that kept innings alive and gave the Bulldogs room to breathe.
Wes Johnson said Volchko set the tone by striking out the side in the first inning, and that opening burst mattered because Texas never found a clean way back into the game. Georgia also got important early at-bats from Tre Phelps and Daniel Jackson before Lujo’s homer changed the shape of the night, and Johnson pointed to Kenny Ishikawa’s big hit as another swing that stretched the lead. Only two of Georgia’s seven runs were earned, and all of the earned runs were charged to Volantis, a sign of how much the game tilted when Texas could not clean up its own mistakes.
The more striking part is that this was not the first hint Volchko could do something like this. Johnson said he had seen signs before, including a regional outing interrupted by a rain delay when Volchko had a no-hitter through five or six innings, and a previous start last week when Mississippi State scored seven before he kept grinding. Saturday night was the version Georgia had been waiting for: spot command, pitch control and enough strikeouts to finish the game himself.
Johnson called it one of the most impressive complete games he has been part of, and the next step comes quickly. Georgia faces Oklahoma Monday at 7 p.m. on, with the winner’s bracket now offering a shorter road and no reason to hide the fact that Volchko just changed the stakes for everyone around him.
