The Georgia baseball team is prepped and primed for its Super Regional against NC State in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Game 1 is set for Saturday, starting at Noon ET. Georgia coach Wes Johnson, third baseman Charlie Condon and catcher Corey Collins spoke with reporters ahead of the Super Regional. Georgia will be looking to advance to the College World Series for the first time since 2008.
Everything Georgia baseball coach Wes Johnson said
On how Charlie Condon and Paul Skenes compare as players...
“I’ve said this before, but great players when I’ve been around them whether when I’ve been with the Twins or guys I’ve been around in college, it’s more mental. The physical stuff, some of it they’re just blessed with but some of it they do continue to develop their talents. Where those two guys are similar, the great ones I’ve been around, they just have a different mind. They want to challenge themselves daily. When they do that, if they don’t get the result they always want, they understand that they’re going to get better because of how hard they challenge themselves.
On the vibe around Georgia baseball entering this week...
“Guys, we’ve had a good ... We we’re fortunate enough to wrap ours up and not have to play Monday. We’ve had a good week, we’ve had some good practices. Haven’t made them too long. Just short and crisp, fast, try and put a lot of tempo to the them. Get them in, get them out. We’ve had a good week. You hope and you want that to carry over to this week.”
On how Georgia baseball has continued to develop...
“Our league, meaning the SEC, it starts there. Everybody in that league is talented. There is not one team that doesn’t have talent. Everyone has good players. I just talk to our team about that a lot. You look at any team in professional baseball, I was fortunate enough to coach two divisional titles, those teams in their belief and confidence is at a level that is really, really high. It gives you a chance to go out and carry that into winning. That’s what I meant by that. Yes, we’ve developed some guys this year. There’s no doubt about that. We can look at that objectively. They had to learn how to believe in themselves. They had to learn, how once they did that, to take the confidence to the field. And then look at their teammates and know that about each other.”
On how Georgia baseball stacks up against NC State...
“I think we’re pretty evenly matched. They’ve got some really good bats. They’ve been play exceptionally well, probably the last four, five weeks now. They’re playing really well. Their pitching is similar to ours, their offense is similar, their defense. You look at this one, we’re evenly matched in my opinion.”
On if Leighton Finley will start on Saturday and what the doctor said on Charlie Goldstein...
“Charlie won’t be with us this weekend. Charlie will be here but he won’t be on the active roster.”
“Game 1 for us, I’m waiting on a few things and I’ll put that out there later.”
On Kolton Smith’s status...
“Oh, he’s fine. Kolton is fine.”
On if having more people around the program builds confidence...
“I think the biggest thing that players have to realize when you’re at home and your home crowd is here, as I tell them all the time, those people are rooting for you to do good. Once we understand that with confidence and belief it should take us to another level.”
On what he wants people who haven’t watched Georgia baseball before to come away with this weekend...
“We just love playing baseball. We enjoy it, we have a lot of fun.Hopefully they see we never really panic, no matter what is going on, good or bad. We just keep playing the game and have fun doing it.”
On the origin of the German Shepherd mask...
“Oh, we could have a whole segment on that. The guys just wanted a prop in the dugout, right? I said, ‘Hey, when did we become the German Shepherds? I thought we were Bulldogs.’ No, there’s been a lot of fun with that. They said they couldn’t find a Bulldog mask on Amazon or wherever they went. The guys have fun with it. Going back to the last [question], I want our guys to have fun. We have enough, you know, serious things in life we have to deal with on a daily basis. Yeah, that’s the dog mask. It’s a product of the guys came up with it. I let them come up with it. I just laughed when I saw the german shepherd mask.”
On if the mask helps keep them loose...
“Oh absolutely, yeah. That’s what that’s stuff’s designed for. That’s what hopefully it’ll do this weekend.”
On NC State’s pitching and the experience it has...
“Yeah, you know, this time of year it’s about experience. They’ve got two really good freshman arms I really, really like. Their two best bullpen arms, at least on our end of evaluating things. They know their players better obviously, their heartbeat and so forth. You just look at raw stuff though, they’ve got two really good freshmen, got a mix of older guys. You’re not going to rattle them. You know, this crowd’s not going to rattle them — or I wouldn’t think that with the starters, especially their older guys. You know, they’re a good program, they play in a good league, and it should be a lot of fun.”
On how this team’s heartbeat has continued to improve...
“Yeah, the biggest example I guess I could give you is Leighton Finley. You know, I thought he was a little — not to use that term ‘sped up,’ but he was moving a little quick opening night of regionals on Friday night. You know, I sat down and talked to him a long time about it. Like, ‘We’re going to need you in the future. You’re going to pitch in these kind of games hopefully more in your career, and the next time you get out there’ — and I told him to be ready for the weekend last weekend and that I needed three outs out of him. I said, ‘When you get back out there, we’re going to go through some different things to make sure.’ And I thought, come on man, bases loaded, no outs, and I thought his heartbeat was great on Sunday.”
On juggling getting ready for this super regional and recruiting the transfer portal...
“Yeah, it’s just the world we live in now, right? You can’t sit back and wait. Yeah, we’ve had a couple commitments and had guys on campus this week. It’s that time of year. It’s a good thing. You want this, not sleeping right now. That means things are going the way they should be.”
On the opportunity to play this series at home...
“Well, the stat just slipped me on home teams in super regionals, but yeah, you want to play at home. Our guys are comfortable. They’re going to sleep in their bed tonight. Everything, right? They’re going to drive their car here the same way they’ve done it for, you know, nine-and-a-half months and get here and then get to the field and go in that same locker room. Yeah, it’s just huge.”
On what it would mean to him and to Georgia to advance to the CWS...
“Yeah, you know, the first thing we want to talk about is tomorrow, but yes, I’d be naive not to say that yeah, if we got there and we win that second game — for these guys, especially this group. You look at Charlie Condon, you look at Corey Collins, Fernando Gonzalez. I mean, I could go through all the guys that have been here a while. It would mean the world to them, right? And, you know, for us, it just shows that you can come in. I heard the term so many times when I got here about rebuild, rebuild, rebuild. You just know that you don’t have to rebuild — that you can go out and if you do your due diligence and run your models and everything else you can find a team that can win in your ballpark.”
On 10 of the 16 teams left standing being from the SEC and the ACC...
“We could point to a lot of things. I think, you know, you’ve got to point to administration and the investment they make in college baseball, right? It’s really hard to be successful at this level without, you know, support from your administration from recruiting to facilities to everything else that gets good players to your place. And so you look, and that’s what the two leagues have done.”
Everything Charlie Condon and Corey Collins said about Georgia baseball
On what it means to be in this spot…
(CHARLIE) “We worked really hard through the offseason and into the spring. It was really getting everybody to buy into what this program is and what it looked like before. We really believed that for a very long time and that’s why we’re here – the persistence of this group, and the willingness to never quit and get better. This has kind of been the vision for a while.”
(COREY) “It means the world. We fell in love with this place the first day we stepped on it. We wanted to bring this back here for as long as we’ve been here. To us, it means everything; it means the world. Seeing this guy (Condon) grow and come up like he has, I really couldn’t have drawn it up any better. It’s just awesome to be back in Athens. We love it.”
On the home run mask…
(COREY) “Brandt Pancer was like ‘Hey, we need something funny.’ So he went and bought it on Amazon. We were like, alright, so we started doing it. You can see Tre Phelps fell in love with it like we all did; Logan Jordan has taken it to heart, so it’s a great team thing.”
On if the home run mask is gross on the inside…
(CHARLIE) “You have to run it through the washer before too long, but surprisingly, it doesn’t stink much, at least I don’t think. But the more and more we use, you kind of put it on to do it’s purpose, then take it off pretty quick.
(COREY) People can’t see out of it anyway.”
(CHARLIE) “It’s dangerous.”
On being up for the Golden Spikes…
(CHARLIE) “It means a lot to me, obviously, but kind of what I’ve always said, it’s an individual recognition, it’s an individual award but it means a lot more than that because you can’t win that award with a lot of good people around you and a lot of people doing their job. It might be a solo recognition, but I like to think of it as an accolade for this group. I’m honored to be up for it, but I think it speaks more to the group than it does to myself.
On what getting to CWS would mean compared to individual award…
(CHARLIE) “Way more, obviously. Just to share that experience with this group, to get to share those memories with this group, it’s why I play the game, it’s why we play the game. We’re going to keep pushing for that.”
On what they remember about Georgia’s last trip to CWS, what it would mean to advance…
(CHARLIE) “I’ve talked to Gordon (Beckham) some about that, but I definitely wasn’t in touch with that in 2008 (laughing). I was in kindergarten. But it’s been awesome to hear Gordon tell those stories. The differences and similarities between that year and this year is definitely pretty cool.”
(COREY) “That’s the ultimate goal to get there. Now that we can see it – and not to get too far ahead – it’s the little motivation that we really can do this no matter what people think.”
On how Wes helped them grow…
(CHARLIE) “Just personal mindsets throughout the day. Everybody believes that they belong here. That’s Wes’ biggest thing. Believe in yourself and know that we’ve put in the work to be where we are. 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. Just that kind of mindset, the growth and obviously the physical development with the staff in all of us. But everybody really believes in themselves right now. I think that’s the biggest thing.”
On the student environment…
(CHARLIE) “It’s really fun to bring it back to baseball. It’s been around for football for a long time now. That student engagement, everybody’s always rallied really strong around the football program for good reason, but to bring that back to baseball some too is really fun. The signs up there and the group up there, it’s been really cool to see. I think it’s the start of some new old traditions for this program, bringing them back and getting them back to where they should be, that’s been really cool to see that start to turn.”
On his relationship with Gordon Beckham…
(CHARLIE) “Yeah, he’s a big mentor for me. I hadn’t met him personally before this year, until the fall when he came and talked to us. He’s been a guy that’s reached out and talked to me a couple of times this year. He’s been nothing but a mentor and a positive voice in my ear and a voice of reason. He’s been in a similar situation with the team and individual success. He’s been extremely helpful to me. He’s a great dude, and I’m lucky to have him.”
On how quickly it went from celebration to Supers…
(COREY) “It was right back to practice. Coach told us after the game, ‘Enjoy it because these moments mean everything and they last forever.’ He told us that, and we took an off day, got away from the field and really enjoyed it. Got back after it on Tuesday and practiced. First thing it was, ‘Hey, back to a new week, a new opportunity ahead of us.’ That’s been how we’ve approached it. We talk about enjoying it and the reason we’ve been able to do the things we’ve been able to do, but in the long run, we’ve got a chance to make some more that are bigger than that moment.”
On NC State…
(CHARLIE) “They’re a good squad, and we talked about that today: you’ve got 16 teams left in College Baseball so everybody’s going to be good. Everybody’s got talent, and everybody is playing good baseball right now. I think that’s the most important thing: if you’ve made it this far, you’re a good group and playing good right now. As a staff, I know they’ve got a couple of good starters and some good bullpen arms too. Know they’re a left-handed bat heavy offense that can swing it pretty well. I think it’s going to be a shootout this weekend. It’s going to be really fun with a lot of good ballplayers all over the field. I’m really excited to get it started.”
On message to a first-time viewer…
(COREY) “We’re electric. We have fun. We go out there and we let it hang loose. We’re a relaxed team, but we’re really focused. I think that’s what we do pitch in and pitch out. We’re talking about scenarios, talking about everything. We’re fun. I think that we’re fun, and I think that that’s the biggest thing Wes tells us all the time. He’s like, ‘You shouldn’t be nervous or ancy about what’s going to happen. You should be able to go out there, have fun and let everything loose and be happy with it.’ If we can believe in ourselves and go out there and let everything loose and have fun with the brothers on this team, the scoreboard will take care of itself, win, lose or draw. That’s something he’s put into our minds, and we’ve had no choice but to believe that. I think that’s what’s carried us to success. We’re really just a fun, electric team that let’s it all out there.”
On the pitching staff...
(CHARLIE) “Top to bottom it’s a really good staff. We’ve had some starters step up recently with Kolten (Smith) and Leighton (Finley) and all these guys that have been throwing big time innings for us. Guys coming out of the pen and knowing their role and what they need to get done. It’s just guys going out there and having faith in themselves. Kind of like what I touched on earlier, but knowing that if they’re getting put out there, they’re getting put out there because Coach Wes believes in them and the rest of us believe in them. I think that really helps them go out there and be the best version of themselves, so top to bottom, I think that’s why we’re playing close to our best baseball right now. We’ve had the staff really on point on some days we’ve been able to put up some runs too. The more we can keep clicking as a full cylinder like that as a pitching staff and an offense, we’re going to be really tough to beat.”
