A national title after a CWS loss is possible. Just ask Wes Johnson.

Georgia’s season is on the brink after its 4-3 loss to Oklahoma on Monday. The defeat sends the Bulldogs into the loser’s bracket, where one more defeat sends them home.

It is an unfamiliar spot for this Georgia squad, whose only win-or-go-home games were at the SEC Tournament, but it’s not new to UGA coach Wes Johnson.

Johnson previously served as the LSU pitching coach for the 2023 season, when the Tigers opened their College World Series with a win over Tennessee before taking a spill in its second game against Wake Forest and having to come out of the loser’s bracket.

LSU picked itself off the mat and rattled off three consecutive wins against Tennessee — again — before beating the Demon Deacons twice to reach the championship series.

That same message is what Johnson told the team soon after Monday’s loss.

“He said, ‘We’re fine,’” catcher Daniel Jackson said in a postgame interview, according to Dawgs247 reporter Olivia Sayer. “(Johnson) kind of related back to the 2023 LSU team, said they lost this game and bounced back.”

Georgia has shown resiliency this postseason, and that will be called on once more as the Bulldogs are in a win or go home position.

The Bulldogs have shown they can respond when adversity hits, as seven of the 12 losses this year were followed by a winning streak of at least three games, including each of their past two defeats.

Monday’s one-run defeat was the first loss Georgia has felt since May 16 in the series finale against Auburn. But the Bulldogs responded with a trio of victories in Hoover, Alabama, to win the SEC Tournament. One of those victories included overcoming a six-run deficit against Florida.

Now, the SEC champs face an uphill climb of needing to win three more games against conference opponents in as many days to reach the finals.

It starts Tuesday at 8 p.m., where they will face an uber-talented Texas team for the second time before having to beat the Sooners twice.

The odds are long: 29 of the past 35 champions started 2-0. But as that LSU team showed, it is never too late for a club to get hot and go on a run.

“(Johnson) talked about his (2023) team he was a part of and how they lost this game and were able to come back from it and get hungry and just go on a little bit of a run,” first baseman Brennan Hudson said. “It was the same message, just coming back and then being ready to go.”

Georgia will not have its top arms, Joey Volchko or Caden Aoki, available for at least two of three must-win games.

The duo threw complete games to start the Bulldogs’ Omaha journey.

Now, Georgia needs a 2023 LSU-style pitching effort. The Tigers turned to first-time starter Nate Ackenhausen, who threw six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in a 5-0 win over Tennessee.

LSU’s bullpen then combined to beat Wake Forest 5-2 and force a decisive game, before future first-round pick Paul Skenes delivered a dominant 2-0 shutout to send the Tigers to the championship series.