Georgia drops game four of NCAA Athens Regional to Duke, 6-3

ATHENS, Ga – Seventh-seeded Georgia dropped game four of the NCAA Athens Regional to Duke, 6-3, at Foley Field on Saturday evening.

Fast Facts:

• Georgia and Duke last faced each other in the 2018 NCAA Athens Regional, where the Blue Devils overtook the Bulldogs, 8-4.

• In his 10th start of the season, Brian Curley (4-4) suffered the loss and allowed four runs off eight hits over 4.1 innings. Duke’s starter Kyle Johnson (4-3) earned the win after tossing five innings and striking out six. James Tallon (2) got the save for the Blue Devils after he tallied five strikeouts across 2.2 innings.

• Ryland Zaborowski put the Bulldogs on the board in the second with his 17th home run of the season.
To lead off the bottom of the sixth inning, Henry Hunter launched a solo home run, his 11th of the year.

• Tre Phelps extended his hit streak to 13 games with a single through the right side in the sixth.

Key Quotes

Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson

On the performance in the loss…
Their guy Kyle Johnson came out tonight, and you’ve got to tip your hat to him. I think he had 14 walks and five strikeouts coming into tonight, and he didn’t walk anybody and struck out six. He had his stuff and commanded it. We knew going in, he was a good, talented arm, and it came together for him tonight. He held us down. We had our chances though. You look at the sixth, seventh, eighth and even in the ninth, we had chances to break it open with the right guys at the plate. They made some pitches. The double play there when Robbie [Burnett] hit the ball to first base, that took a little wind out of our sail, but you can’t do a whole lot about that. He hit the ball hard, and the base runner can’t get back on that. The guy fell back on it and made another play. Slate [Alford] hit the ball really hard down the line, but tip your hat to the third baseman, who made a really nice play. He lays out, gets up, throws him out. Those are momentum plays, and when you’re going up against some arms like we did tonight, you need one or two of those to go your way. But hey, we’ve got a lot of pitching left, and we get to play again tomorrow at 12 p.m.”

Game Three
In the first game of the day, Oklahoma State eliminated Binghamton, 13-5.

Fast Facts:

• Oklahoma State’s Stormy Rhodes (1-1) was the winning pitcher with 2.1 innings pitched, three hits allowed and one strikeout. Binghamton’s Hayden Tarsia (4-4) received the loss, allowing five runs off of six hits in 2.2 innings.

• Oklahoma State’s Kollin Ritchie (3-4, 4 RBI, 2B, 2 HR, BB), Colin Brueggemann (2-4, RBI, HR) and Ian Daugherty (2-5, RBI, HR) hit three consecutive home runs in the third inning.

• In Saturday’s game, 10 home runs were hit by eight different players — seven by Oklahoma State and three by Binghamton.

• The Bearcats finished the season with an overall record of 29-26 and made their first NCAA Regional appearance since 2022.

Up Next: Georgia will play Oklahoma State in an elimination game on Sunday at noon. Duke will play the winner of game five at 6 p.m.