Georgia baseball’s Joey Volchko ready for Texas in College World Series

OMAHA, Neb. —  Joey Volchko has geared up this week to face a Texas lineup that is the second highest scoring team at the College World Series, led the SEC in walks drawn and has two players with 22 or more homers.

He also knows No. 3 seed Georgia baseball needs him to be on his game in Saturday‘s 8 p.m. matchup, considering that the starting pitcher on the other side, Dylan Volantis, is one of the top arms in the nation.

“Every game I go out there, I try to give my team a chance to win,” Volchko said. “I know at any moment they can explode for seven runs so for me just keeping the game close, especially game one against Mississippi State, I knew I had to keep the game because we were going to come back. That meant a lot to me to stay in and keep fighting. That’s the same mentality I’m going to carry into this one.”

Volchko and Georgia (51-12) trailed Mississippi State 7-0 in the fourth inning on June 6 in the Athens Super Regional before rallying back for a 13-12 win.

Volchko gave up seven runs (four earned) on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts in five innings.

“He’s that guy who doesn’t want to be taken out of a game at any time, no matter what the score is or what’s going on,” Georgia coach Wes Johnson said.

The sophomore lefty Volantis is 10-2 and is fourth in the nation with 2.03 ERA with 27 walks and 126 strikeouts for No. 6 seed Texas (45-13). He will face a Texas team that includes Aiden Robbins (24 homers) and Carson Tinney (22 homers).

“As a staff, we know our offense is really good so we try to treat every inning as a 0-0 ballgame regardless of if we’re up and down,” said Volchko, a senior transfer from Stanford who is 10-2 with a 4.07 ERA. “Especially with a guy on the mound like Volantis, he’s going to limit runs, he’s going to limit contact. He’s really good at what he does and so does their entire pitching staff. We’re going to have to pitch a complete game to get it done.”

The 6-foot-6 Volantis threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings in relief, with two hits allowed, one walk and nine strikeouts in Texas’ sweep of Georgia last season in Athens.

“He’s got a high release height,” Johnson said. “He does a really good job of tunneling his fastball and curve ball down in the strike zone which makes it tough. I think that’s why he gets so many chases. He’ll stick you the fast ball down at your knees and then start the curve ball right there. The hitters have, with that release height, a really, really hard time picking up the spin. He gets a lot chases on curve balls that bounce. That’s still pretty much his MO now. He’s moving the ball around a little bit more with his fastball trying to open up his curve ball.”

Volantis has given up just two homers in 88 2/3 innings this season.

Georgia leads the nation with 174 homers and is fourth in the nation with a .326 batting average.

“We’ve been preparing for him,” shortstop Kolby Branch said. “So it’s just, it’s a good arm. So you’ve got to go out there. You’ve got to take your offensive hacks. You’ve got to go out there and be confident in yourself and go out there and believe, or that’s it. Just like we’ve done all year against any good arm.”