Wes Johnson on blowout loss vs. NC State: ‘We’ll respond’

NC State scored 11 runs in the second inning to shock Georgia with an 18-1 loss on its home field on Saturday. The Wolfpack now only needs one more win to earn its way into the Men’s College World Series.

In a game where seemingly nothing would fall in the Bulldogs’ favor — head coach Wes Johnson isn’t panicking despite now having to face elimination on Sunday afternoon. Instead, he’s choosing to see the positives in what quickly turned into an unfortunate outing for the home squad.

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“It’s good to see that your guys have got some fight,” Johnson said after the loss. “We only scored one run because of a couple of guys, I thought they were trying to hit 10-run homers up there but that just means they care. That just means that they’re trying to get us back into the game and so we got outside of our approach a little bit, especially there after that second inning, but we’ll respond, we’ll be ready to go.”

Offensively, the Bulldogs finished with four hits and a run during the contest. On the other side of the plate, Georgia’s defense allowed 20 hits. Most of that production came during the 11-run second inning as NC State wouldn’t score more than two runs in any other inning.

“It happens,” Johnson continued. “Look, we’ve had four or five of these games this year. But I think the resilience we’ve shown in that next game is what you build off of and I think, as I told our guys, you just need to flush it.”

To Johnson’s point, Georgia has been able to bounce back after big losses. In fact, after the Bulldogs were eliminated from the SEC Tournament with a 9-1 loss to LSU, Georgia swept its competition in the Athens Regional.

Similarly, the Bulldogs were run-ruled by Texas A&M 19-9 in seven innings in late April. Georgia would not only go on to defeat the Aggies 5-4 in the series finale the next time out, but they rattled off nine-straight wins after the big loss including sweeps on Vanderbilt and South Carolina.

A similar effort will be needed to extend the Bulldogs’ season for one more game, as a loss would end Georgia’s season in a sweep in front of their home crowd at Foley Field. The first pitch between the Bulldogs and Wolfpack is set for Noon ET live on ESPN2.