HOOVER, Ala. — Georgia first baseman Brennan Hudson hit a three-run home run to right field in the bottom of the fourth inning Thursday afternoon — his 17th of the season — breaking a 1-1 tie and providing the decisive blow as the No. 1 seed Georgia Bulldogs eliminated the No. 8 seed Mississippi State Bulldogs 5-3 in the SEC Baseball Tournament quarterfinal at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. The SEC regular-season champions advance to Saturday’s semifinal at 1 p.m. ET to face the winner of Game 10 — Florida vs. Alabama.
Wes Johnson after Georgia’s 5-3 quarterfinal win over Mississippi State. (SEC Network)
Joey Volchko (left) and Brennan Hudson after Georgia’s 5-3 quarterfinal win — Hudson hit the game-deciding 3-run HR in the 4th inning. (SEC Network)
Georgia improved to 44-12 overall and continues its drive toward a potential NCAA Tournament national seed and regional host bid. Mississippi State’s season at Hoover ends at 40-17 (16-15 SEC) under first-year head coach Brian O’Connor; the Bulldogs from Starkville now await Monday’s selection show with their NCAA Tournament regional placement and potential hosting bid in the committee’s hands.
Wes Johnson — the 2026 SEC Coach of the Year, named Monday after Georgia secured the conference’s outright regular-season title — moves his program one step closer to the SEC Tournament championship game.
For O’Connor, the loss closes the conference portion of a debut season that exceeded preseason expectations. O’Connor reflected on his first SEC tour in the postgame.
“It’s, here we are now done with the conference tournament, and you know, first and foremost, I’m very proud to be the coach at Mississippi State,” O’Connor said. “I understand what comes with that and the pride that not only the fans have, but the players and former players have in this baseball program. I want to do everything I can as the leader of it to live up to it of what the standards are in this program. Certainly this league is outstanding.”
He continued: “The thing that I learned is how narrow it is, how much the fringes matter. I believe this year we lost seven games by one run. We’re right there. We just need to be a little bit better starting next weekend in those tight ball games. I don’t think other than maybe one game this year — if I can recall correctly, that was Game 3 against Auburn — every other game you felt like we were in it.”
HUDDY HAS LEFT THE YARD 🫡
B4 | UGA 4, MSST 1#GoDawgs | @BrennanHudson6 pic.twitter.com/xNQlxpJwF0
— Georgia Baseball (@BaseballUGA) May 21, 2026
Hudson’s three-run swing
Mississippi State had drawn even at 1-1 in the top of the third inning. Center fielder Ryder Woodson — the NC State transfer who has been a steady presence in the lineup for the Bulldogs from Starkville — led off the third with a double to right-center. Catcher Chone James followed with an RBI single up the middle to score Woodson and tie the game.
Georgia’s response came in the bottom of the fourth. Rylan Lujo — the All-SEC First Team center fielder — singled to third base to start the inning. After a flyout, Ryan Wynn singled to left field. With two on, Brennan Hudson stepped in. The Georgia first baseman caught a 1-0 pitch from Mississippi State starter Duke Stone and drove it over the right-field fence for a three-run home run, scoring Lujo and Wynn ahead of him.
https://x.com/BaseballUGA/status/2057524694090440927
The blast — Hudson’s 17th of the season — made it 4-1 Georgia. It was Hudson’s clutch contribution to a Georgia offense that, while not powered by a single dominant night from 2026 SEC Player of the Year Daniel Jackson, produced runs in three different innings.
Wes Johnson, the Georgia head coach, broke down Hudson’s value to the lineup in the postgame.
“You look at it, and the thing that’s really impressive about him is his ability to take his walk. He has a very, very low chase rate, which allows him to get into some favorable counts,” Johnson said. “We call him Huddy. You look at Huddy — his ability to get into fastball counts because he doesn’t chase and then get off a good swing is what has made him really good this year. Oh gosh, what’s he hit? 17 now? Yeah, he’s homered 17. It really lengthens your lineup.”
For O’Connor, watching the Hudson home run develop, the inning frustration was about the pitch sequence.
“The inning started off with a rollover ground ball and then a two-strike hit, and you know, credit them — a 2-0 pitch, a guy hits the three-run home run,” O’Connor said. “Duke Stone was pitching good. The three-run home run was the difference in the ball game.”
Brennan Hudson, in the postgame, explained the lineup-wide confidence.
“There’s so much confidence just from the other guys around you,” Hudson said. “We have so many fun bats and fun guys just to be around. Like I said, the confidence comes from the guy behind you. He’s gonna get it done if you’re not able to. But same thing with the guy in front of you — you’re gonna pick him up every time and just keep on going.”
Jackson — the catcher who entered the day batting .394 with 27 home runs and 25 stolen bases, making him the first catcher in Division I history with a 25-25 season — went 1-for-4 with a strikeout. Georgia didn’t need him to be the focal point. The lineup was 1-9 productive.
The double-play problem
For Mississippi State, the offensive story was the inability to convert baserunners into runs. The Bulldogs from Starkville hit into four double plays across nine innings — a rare and game-altering total that drained every base-runner Mississippi State managed to push on against the Georgia pitching staff.
The double plays came in clusters. In the second inning, Reed Stallman singled with one out, then Bryce Chance grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. In the third, Chone James followed his RBI single with Gehrig Frei’s lineout double play (P-1B) that erased the run-scoring opportunity. In the fifth, Chone James grounded into a 6-4-3 with Ryder Woodson on first base, ending another threat. And in the seventh, Reed Stallman walked to lead off, then Bryce Chance grounded into a 5-4-3 to end the inning.
The pattern was consistent: Mississippi State got on base, then ran into the wrong contact at the wrong time. The Bulldogs from Starkville had nine hits and three walks on the night but managed only three runs.
“We swung it pretty well. We just left some guys out there,” Noah Sullivan, Mississippi State’s All-SEC designated hitter, said in the postgame. “Certain situations happen, but we just have to be better offensively as a whole. There’s not one guy to just pinpoint, but we just gotta be a better offense.”
Asked specifically about the difference from Wednesday’s 12-2 outburst against Missouri, Sullivan added: “I guess the pitching was a little better. Maybe we tip our hat a little bit, but we just have to be better in certain spots with a guy on first. Not necessarily hit the ball in the air, but try to stay off the ground.”
“Four double plays today, I am very annoyed,” one Mississippi State fan posted on r/collegebaseball in real time, summarizing the frustration of an offense that produced traffic but not runs. “Would it kill this team to NOT hit into a double play?????”
Joey Volchko and the Georgia pitching plan
For Georgia, the early innings belonged to the starter. Joey Volchko — the right-hander who got the ball for the quarterfinal — was efficient and effective across 5.0 innings. The line: 7 hits, 2 runs, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 1 strikeout on 68 pitches. He gave up Mississippi State’s first run in the third inning and surrendered another in the sixth on an Ace Reese RBI single, but otherwise navigated the Bulldogs from Starkville’s lineup without further damage. Volchko got two of his double plays in support — the Frei lineout double play in the third and the James groundball double play in the fifth.
“Joey came out and really attacked the strike zone early,” Johnson said. “Looked like they were coming out ready to swing. He executed. I thought his fastball today was really good, especially the command of it. Landed some sliders when we needed them.”
Volchko, asked about how he settles into starts in big-environment games, said the key is the same approach he uses in every start.
“Just tons of practice and having all these road starts. They’re great atmospheres and I have a lot of fun,” Volchko said. “Part of why I’m sitting in this chair is because I’m a competitor and I want to win. Sometimes you’ve gotta dial that back a little bit just to establish the zone and then let that carry me deep into the game.”
Asked specifically about facing the Mississippi State lineup, Volchko gave a careful tip of the cap.
“They’re an extremely well coached team with a great approach. I had the chance of playing one of Brian O’Connor’s teams at Virginia when I was at Stanford, and started,” Volchko said. “It was the same thing — well coached, good approach. They had just gritty at-bats and they were making me work. So they’ve kind of done that this year twice as well, and just gotta be tougher.”
Volchko exited after five innings with Georgia leading 4-2 and the bullpen lined up to close.
Matt Scott — Georgia’s right-handed reliever — entered in the sixth and was lights-out: 3.0 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts on 28 pitches. Scott’s three innings of perfect baseball came at the crucial part of the game when Mississippi State, down two runs and needing baserunners to mount a comeback, never got one. He held the Bulldogs to no hits, no walks, and three strikeouts across the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings.
Johnson admitted in the postgame that Scott’s first inning was a brief rough patch.
“Matt came in, the first inning was just OK for him under his standards. I probably should have given him another hitter — we kind of rushed him out there a little bit,” Johnson said. “But then after that, I thought he settled in and threw the ball really well the last three innings. He was really executing his cutter, getting it to the areas to induce soft contacts or ground balls.”
Volchko — who’s been catching the Scott handoff for two seasons now — added a teammate’s read.
“It’s been awesome,” Volchko said of his on-mound relationship with Scott. “I see him as a starter, and I really trust him to give him the ball regardless of the situation. I know he believes in his stuff, and he doesn’t think there’s anybody better on that field than him. So it’s been awesome to kind of follow his career. We’ve been together for three years now, so just watching him compete — it’s contagious.”
Tyler Pitzer — the Georgia closer — entered in the ninth. Mississippi State’s Noah Sullivan greeted him with a solo home run to left center on the first pitch he saw, cutting Georgia’s lead to 5-3. But after the home run, Pitzer worked through the inning. Sullivan’s home run was Mississippi State’s only damage of the inning. Pitzer’s line: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K on 16 pitches. The save was complete.
“Noah Sullivan, king of the solo shot,” one Mississippi State fan posted on r/collegebaseball after the ninth-inning home run. Another added: “Too bad the offense couldn’t do this earlier when guys were on base.”
Ws in the chat 💬@BaseballUGA x #SECTourney pic.twitter.com/Bc4tJyzCFq
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) May 21, 2026
The grind shows in Mississippi State’s pitching
Mississippi State’s pitching told a different story than its Wednesday performance against Missouri. The Bulldogs from Starkville used five pitchers across 7.2 innings — a workload reflective of the toll the SEC Tournament’s compressed schedule takes on a single-elimination quarterfinalist.
Duke Stone got the start and exited after 3.1 innings, charged with the loss. His line: 6 hits, 4 runs, 4 earned runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts on 55 pitches. The Hudson three-run home run accounted for three of those four earned runs.
Jack Bauer entered in relief and went 2.2 innings — 1 hit, 1 run, 1 earned run, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts on 43 pitches. The run he allowed was Georgia’s fifth, scored in the seventh inning when Kenny Ishikawa drew a bases-loaded walk that scored Tre Phelps from third. Maddox Webb followed for two-thirds of an inning, then Dane Burns and Tyler Pitzer (Mississippi State’s reliever sharing the surname with Georgia’s closer) closed out the eighth.
For a program that asked Tomas Valincius — the All-SEC First Team starting pitcher and a 2026 MLB Draft prospect — to throw six innings of 78-pitch baseball on Wednesday against Missouri on short rest, the toll showed Thursday. The Bulldogs from Starkville pitched roughly 16 innings across two days, used eight different arms across both games, and exhausted the depth O’Connor was relying on to navigate the bracket.
For O’Connor, the postseason pitching outlook entering the NCAA Tournament shifts toward right-hander Ryan Milewski — the senior who’s been working back from a long injury layoff and was scheduled to start Saturday’s semifinal had Mississippi State won.
