Men’s College World Series: Joey Volchko dominates as Georgia knocks off Texas

Entering the Men’s College World Series, Georgia’s offense was the story for the Bulldogs. Led by Golden Spikes finalist Daniel Jackson, the Bulldogs were among the team leaders in several offensive categories this season, and led the nation with a whopping 174 home runs.

And while that offense showed up Saturday night against Texas, scoring 7 runs in a 7-1 win, the big story in Omaha was the outing from starting pitcher Joey Volchko.

The right-hander went the distance for Georgia, allowing four hits and one unearned run, while striking out 15 in a dominant performance.

And the most impressive stat of the night from Volchko? He walked just one batter, and that came in the ninth inning on his 105th pitch of the night. 

Volchko showed impressive command throughout the night, particularly with his breaking stuff. He features a slider with bite, and he consistently used that early in the count to get ahead of hitters, but he also came back to it to finish hitters off late in the count. You can see that on this cutup from early in the game:

But to close things out, he came back to the fastball on his final pitch of the night, a 96-mph heater to freeze cleanup hitter Temo Becerra.

It matched the 96-mph he showed on his first fastball of the game. 

“Honestly, things kinda slowed down for me, I was able to compete and execute pitches,” said Volchko after the win.

He also pointed to his slider.

“Yeah, slider, command to both sides was pretty good,” said Volchko to ESPN when asked what what pitches he had working against Texas. 

Here’s another look at that slider, for his tenth strikeout of the night:

The real command Volchko showed came during that interview, as Tre Phelps and company draped the righty with Sour Power Candy Belts as he spoke with ESPN. 

It was also his first career complete game.

Georgia will take on Oklahoma on Monday night, while Texas will square off with Alabama in an elimination game on Monday afternoon.