OMAHA, Neb. – Volchko outdueled Volantis on college baseball’s biggest stage.
Joey Volchko went the distance with a career-high 15 strikeouts as No. 3 Georgia downed No. 6 Texas 7-1 in front of 25,002 fans on Saturday evening in Game 4 of the 2026 College World Series at Charles Schwab Field.
The Bulldogs (52-12) will face Oklahoma on Monday, June 15, at 6 p.m. CT. The Longhorns (45-14) will meet Alabama in an elimination game on Monday at 1 p.m. CT.
Volchko (11-2) was in control the entire evening. He struck out the side in the first and fourth while fanning three in the ninth to finish his first collegiate complete game. Volchko allowed four hits and walked one in the ninth.
“I thought Joey came out and really set the tone of the game,” UGA head coach Wes Johnson said. “Struck out the side in the first, attacking the strike zone, doing what he’s done a lot this year, and being able to spin his breaking ball and his curveball was really working. Commanding pitches, just hitting spots. If we called it low and away, he hit it. If we called the slider strike to ball, he did it. One of the most impressive complete-game performances I’ve been a part of.”
Dylan Volantis (10-2) allowed two earned runs in 6.1 innings for UT. He gave up four hits, walked one and struck out nine.
“After what happened in the first,” Volantis said, “I told myself, go give the team a chance to win out there. Kept battling no matter what. It was a 0-0 ballgame in my head. No matter what the score is, just go out there and compete.”
In the top of the first, leadoff hitter Aiden Robbins jumped ahead with a 3-1 count. Volchko got a called strike and then a swinging strike for the first out.
“We always talk about it as a team,” Volchko said. “Don’t panic and we don’t get sped up. So I just went back in there with the mentality of, I’ve got to attack the zone. That first hitter was really important.”
Volchko fanned Carson Tinney on four pitches and Antyony Pack Jr. on three pitches to complete the first.
Volantis had a tough first inning. He walked leadoff hitter Tre Phelps and surrendered a two-run homer to Rylan Lujo off the fair pole in left to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. It was Lujo’s 14th long ball of the season.
Mike O’Shaughnessy struck out but reached on an errant throw to first by catcher Tinney. Kenny Ishikawa followed with a base hit. With two away, Brennan Hudson was plunked to load the bases. Kolby Branch struck out but reached on a wild pitch. O’Shaughnessy scored on the wild pitch and Tinney committed another error on an errant throw to first that allowed Ishikawa to score, as those two unearned runs gave UGA a 4-0 lead.
UT scratched for a run in the fifth. Adrian Rodriguez had a leadoff single, went to third on a failed pickoff attempt and scored on a base hit by Ethan Mendoza to make it 4-1.
The Bulldogs added three unearned runs in the seventh, as Lujo had an RBI double and Ishikawa delivered a two-run single to push the advantage to 7-1.
“I felt like there was two stories to that game,” UT head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “Number one, Volchko was awesome. Didn’t walk a guy until the ninth inning and threw endless amount of strikes. I was actually super impressed in an era of baseball where there’s strikeouts, and emotional things happen in the game, and I didn’t see him once screaming at our team or do anything that some of the kids do these days. I thought he was super professional and was outstanding.
“Then the other story of the game, from a defensive standpoint, that’s the worst game we’ve played the whole season which is super disappointing. On our end that’s a very bad taste in our mouth. That was not good on the part of the Longhorns.”
Lujo finished with two hits, two runs and three RBI. Ishikawa had two hits and knocked in two, while Phelps scored twice for the Bulldogs.
Rodriguez and Mendoza both had two hits for the Longhorns.
Notes
- Georgia is the last school to be unbeaten in the 2026 NCAA Championship.
- UGA raised its win total to 52, matching the program mark set in the national championship season of 1990. The Bulldogs are tied with UCLA for the most wins in Division I this season.
- The Bulldogs have won 20 of their past 21 games.
- Kenny Ishikawa extended his on-base streak to 21 games.
- The nine strikeouts by Dylan Volantis raised his season total to 135, the third-highest total in the nation.
- Adrian Gonzalez extended his on-base streak to 13 games.
- Ethan Mendoza extended his hitting streak to eight games, matching his season high.