OMAHA, Neb. — Georgia’s Joey Volchko struck out a career-high 15 batters in his first complete game, and the Bulldogs capitalized on a horrific first inning by Texas ace Dylan Volantis to win 7-1 in a showdown of the Southeastern Conference’s top two teams at the College World Series on Saturday night at Charles Schwab Stadium Omaha.
The Bulldogs (52-12), who were the No. 3 seed for the NCAA Division I tournament’s 64-team field, were among the eight teams advancing to Omaha for the first time since 2008, when they reached the best-of-three title series and won the opener but lost the next two games to Fresno State.
Their seventh CWS appearance overall will continue Monday night when they play unseeded Oklahoma (39-22) for control of the four-team bracket that has only SEC teams.
The sixth-seeded Longhorns (45-14) meet No. 7 Alabama (42-20) in an elimination game Monday. The Crimson Tide lost 9-0 to Oklahoma earlier Saturday.
Volchko (11-2) fanned nine of the first 13 batters he faced, allowed just four singles and didn’t issue a walk until the ninth inning of his 114-pitch masterpiece.
“One of the most impressive complete-game performances I’ve been a part of,” Georgia third-year head coach Wes Johnson said.
When Volchko struck out Temo Becerra to end the game, he spun around, spread his arms and let out a scream before embracing catcher Daniel Jackson.
“We knew who we were going to attack with what, how we were going to flip in between times through the order,” said Volchko, who mixed a curveball and sweeper with his fastball and hit his spots all night. “There was a lot of preparation. There was a lot of comfort in that. I felt like when I got out there, things slowed down a little bit, as opposed to speed up.”
Georgia (52-12) improved to 6-0 in this year’s NCAA tourney and has won 20 of its past 21 games since April 25. Texas (45-14) has lost four straight in the CWS over three appearances since 2021.
It was the last of the four first-round games at this year’s CWS, with No. 16 West Virginia of the Big 12 beating Troy of the Sun Belt, 7-5, and No. 5 North Carolina of the Atlantic Coast Conference beating SEC member Ole Miss 6-2 in Friday’s matchups.
Volantis (10-2) had a frustrating night. He allowed only four hits and struck out nine batters in 6 1/3 innings, but he also had two wild pitches and hit four batters after having plunked a total of seven entering the game.
The sophomore left-hander threw 41 pitches in the first inning as almost anything that could go wrong for the Longhorns did.
Georgia’s scoring started with Rylan Lujo’s two-run homer off the left-field foul pole, only the third allowed by Volantis in 89 innings this season.
The bases were loaded with two outs after Volantis hit two batters around the first of catcher Carson Tinney’s two botched throws to first after dropped third strikes. It was 4-0 after Kolby Branch swung and missed on a wild pitch in the dirt. The ball bounced off Tinney, who picked it up and threw wide to first, allowing two runners to come home.
“I mean, that stuff happens. He’s been phenomenal all year round,” Volantis said of Tinney. “For me, that was the first time that’s happened. I mean, that happens. I already told him ‘No worries, man,’ but we’re going to get that cleaned up.”
Texas capitalized on Volchko’s bad pickoff attempt in the fifth to score its only run, but the Bulldogs broke open the game in the seventh with three runs on two hits, the Longhorns’ third error and a wild pitch.
“From a defensive standpoint, that’s the worst game we’ve played the whole season, which is super disappointing,” Texas coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “On our end, that’s a very bad taste in our mouth. I don’t know if it would have mattered considering Volchko was so awesome but, yeah, that was not good on the part of the Longhorns.”