ATHENS — Charlie Condon hasn’t been on fire of late, but the Georgia baseball star broke the ice in Sunday’s 11-2 win with the first hit of the game.

It was arguably as big of a hit as any Condon has had all season with Georgia’s confidence rattled after an 18-1 loss to North Carolina State (37-21) in Game One of the best-of-three NCAA Baseball Tournament Super Regional.

Slate Alford, freshly moved up into the No. 3 spot in the lineup made the most of Condon’s single to left by driving a pitch over the left-center wall for a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Georgia (43-16), the designated “visitor” on Sunday, will return to home team status for the decisive Game Three at 7 p.m on Monday night (TV: ESPN).

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Condon was 0-for-3 with a walk in the opening game, leaving two runners on base in the bottom of the third when he flied out to center with UGA already trailing 12-1.

Condon bounced back with a 1-for-4 hitting performance at the plate — that included a 112-mph line drive out to third — on Sunday, also drawing a walk.

North Carolina State 28th-year head coach Elliott Avent made it clear that, even after holding Condon hitless in the opening game, the Wolfpack would take great care pitching to and around the nation’s leader in batting average (.439), home runs (36) and slugging percentage (1.022).

“He looks like Henry Aaron is what he looks like, he can really hit, and what a great player he is, and what a great season he’s had, one for the books,” Avent said, asked to assess Condon, the SEC Player of the Year.

“His season has been incredible; you can see why he’s a great player. He plays the game the right way, a lot of respect for Charlie Condon, I can tell you that.”

Condon, widely projected as the No. 1 pick in the upcoming Major League Baseball Draft and a finalist for the prestigious Golden Spikes Award, which is given to the nation’s best player, has not spoken to media since before the Super Regional.

But Condon’s message then proved insightful, as he and his Bulldogs’ teammates backed it up with Sunday’s bounce-back win.

“Everybody believes that they belong here,” Condon said on Friday as UGA ran through its final practice before attempting to become the first Georgia baseball team to make it to Omaha since Gordon Beckham helped lead the 2008 team to a runner-up finish.

“That’s Coach Wes’ (Johnson) biggest thing; believe in yourself and know that we’ve put in the work to be where we are,” Condon said. “Things don’t happen just for nothing. Things happen for a reason, and a lot of that reason is the work we’ve continued to put in and everybody buying into the fact that we belong in an SEC program and one that’s going to have success.”