Georgia
Georgia baseball shares personal significance of CWS opportunity, faces NC State at noon Saturday
ATHENS – Georgia baseball has already shocked many across the country, but a trip to the College World Series could cement a lasting legacy as coach Wes Johnson looks to recompose the program.
The Bulldogs (42-15) are just two wins away from erasing a 16-year CWS drought. UGA will fight to raise some more eyebrows when it opens a three-game super regional series against NC State at noon on Saturday at Foley Field (TV: ESPNU).
A CWS berth would be a massive step for the Georgia program as it looks to move back into national relevance and stay there.
But for long-time Bulldogs like Corey Collins and Charlie Condon, the road to Omaha has more personal significance.
Collins, who has been at Georgia since 2021, saw the program scuffle for three seasons. He experienced the Bulldogs miss the NCAA tournament outright in 2021 and 2023 and was there to watch the team suffer a heartbreak elimination at North Carolina’s regional in 2022.
Collins finished his first season on the SEC All-Freshman Team before statistically slumping his sophomore and junior years.
Then the Suwanee native found his stride – and health – again near the beginning of the 2024 SEC season and has been one of the country’s top leadoff hitters since. It was Collins who offensively willed Georgia into the super regionals with a two-out, two-run double to lift UGA over Georgia Tech in extra innings.
“It means the world,” Collins said. “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.”
Condon, in his third year at Georgia, saw the heartache, too. The Golden Spikes Award finalist began building into his 6-foot-6 frame during his true freshman season and has led the Bulldog offense over the last two seasons.
Condon has often talked about “bringing Georgia baseball back” to the glory it last had in 2008.
“It was really getting everybody to buy into what this program is and what it looked like before,” Condon said. “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.”
A trip to Omaha would only further establish the first-year coach Johnson, who is already Georgia’s only first-year coach to host and win a regional.
Johnson’s transfer portal prowess built a veteran team around the core he inherited in Athens, and then the head coach established a culture of belief and confidence within the team.
Johnson was certainly confident in himself, using his systems to restructure a sliding program in less than a year.
“For us, it just shows that you can come in,” Johnson said. “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.”
Indeed, No. 7 seed Georgia has plenty left to prove against the No. 10 seed Wolfpack (36-20) this weekend.
The Bulldogs aim to start proving things early against NC State ace Sam Highfill. The right-hander enters Athens with a 5.35 ERA coming off a solid performance in NC State’s regional.
Highfill surrendered two runs on four hits in 6.0 innings of work in a regional-opening win against Bryant.
Johnson plans to counter with sophomore right-hander Kolten Smith. The team’s strikeout leader is arguably Georgia’s hottest pitcher and will enter Saturday with a 4.41 ERA.
Fellow sophomore starter Leighton Finley has typically opened series for the Bulldogs this season, but Finley closed Georgia’s win over Tech after starting the regional opener two days before.
Smith only threw 82 pitches in Saturday’s regional win over UNC Wilmington before leaving with a forearm cramp.
UGA is 3-2 against NC State all-time, including a 2-1 record against the Wolfpack in the 2008 Athens Super Regional to advance to the CWS.
Georgia
Georgia Tech Athletics Receives a Pair of $10 Million Gifts
THE FLATS – Two generous, anonymous families have each given $10 million gifts to support Georgia Tech athletics’ Full Steam Ahead initiative and the Yellow Jackets’ football program, Tech vice president and director of athletics Ryan Alpert has announced.
“We’re incredibly grateful to these two generous families for their investments in Georgia Tech athletics and a championship-level football program,” Alpert said. “Led by these families, their relentless investments in our mission and their belief in our upward trajectory, support of Georgia Tech athletics and Tech football are at unprecedented levels.”
With these transformative gifts, Georgia Tech athletics is well on to set a new fundraising record in the 2026 fiscal year, as donor participation is up 21% in just six months since the fiscal year began on July 1.
Additionally, in just 14 months since the public launch of Full Steam Ahead in October 2024, Tech athletics has received nearly $90 million in new commitments to the initiative. In total, nearly $400 million has been raised towards Full Steam Ahead’s $500 million goal, which is a part of the Institute-wide Transforming Tomorrow campaign.
Georgia Tech continues to display its commitment to fielding nationally prominent, championship-level athletics programs. Notably, Tech athletics has committed to making more than $150 million in investments to its football program over the next several years, which includes the opening of the Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center in the spring (a state-of-the-art facility that will benefit Georgia Tech’s full body of 300-plus student-athletes), a renovation of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field that will be completed prior to the 2027 season, a continued pledge to provide maximum revenue sharing to student-athletes and significant new resources devoted to expand and enhance staff.
To fulfill these commitments, enhanced engagement and support from the Georgia Tech community is vital.
“We still have progress to make to achieve our goal of consistently competing for championships at the highest levels of intercollegiate athletics,” Alpert continued. “Never in the history of college athletics has success been so closely tied to resources, and now is the time to seize the opportunity to take advantage of the great momentum and energy that we’re experiencing on The Flats.
“Every member of the White and Gold community can play a part. We urge fans to get in the game. Whether it be through gifts to the A-T Fund, purchasing tickets and merchandise, corporate sponsorships – every manner of support is vital to the success of Tech athletics.”
For more information and to make a year-end gift to the A-T Fund, visit atfund.org.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
Fourth Quarter
Less than two weeks remain for the Georgia Tech community to take advantage of the A-T Fund’s year-end Fourth Quarter Initiative, which gives supporters the opportunity to receive four A-T Fund priority points for every $100 donated to the Athletic Scholarship Fund through Dec. 31. The Athletic Scholarship Fund provides direct support for student-athletic scholarships and is one of the A-T Fund’s highest annual priorities, as it helps bridge the gap between endowment returns and scholarship costs.
Fourth Quarter gifts to the Athletic Scholarship Fund will provide donors with four A-T Fund priority points per $100 donated, which is double the two points normally allotted per $100 given. A-T Fund priority points are used to allocate benefits such as seat locations and parking for Georgia Tech athletics home events, as well as access to tickets for away games and postseason events, including ACC and NCAA Championships, bowl games and the College Football Playoff. To contribute to the Fourth Quarter Initiative and begin collecting four A-T Fund priority points for every $100 donated, click HERE. For more information, visit atfund.org/4th-quarter.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram and at www.ramblinwreck.com.
Georgia
DA Fani Willis appears before Georgia Senate panel
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies before a Georgia State Senate committee in Atlanta as she ends her year-long legal fight over a subpoena and defends her actions in the Trump election interference case.
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Georgia
One of Georgia Tech’s best, Haynes King readies for Yellow Jackets finale
A day after receiving ACC honors, Tech’s senior quarterback refocuses on BYU and the bowl game.
Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King (center) and his family react during a senior night event prior to his final home game Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, against Pittsburgh at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin AJC)
As Haynes King’s time in Atlanta and as a member of the Georgia Tech football program wanes, the inimitable quarterback is soaking in the last few days with teammates while basking in the glow of winning a pair of individual ACC awards.
King was presented two trophies Tuesday — one for being named the ACC player of the year and the other for being named the ACC offensive player of the year — during halftime of Tech’s basketball win over Marist at McCamish Pavilion. The senior was joined by Tech coach Brent Key, Tech athletic director Ryan Alpert, Tech President Angel Cabrera and the ACC’s senior vice president for football, Michael Strickland.
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