Joey Volchko’s workhorse mindset continues to fuel Georgia’s pitching staff
The box score would tell you Georgia starting pitcher Joey Volchko’s performance against Mississippi State was bad.
He finished Saturday’s super regional outing throwing just five innings. He gave up seven hits and seven runs (four earned), walked two and struck out six.
Yet the Bulldogs prevailed, 13-12. And UGA coach Wes Johnson said his No. 1 arm in the starting rotation showed true guts on the mound.
“There’s a lot of guys, when that happens, they’ll crumble a little bit and be like, ‘Ah, poor me,’” Johnson said. “But Joey’s like, ‘No, I got to keep in here, I got to keep fighting for my team.’”
Volchko, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, was making his third start this season against Mississippi State and gave up six runs in the second inning. It looked like Georgia was going to have turn to its bullpen much earlier than expected.
But Johnson chose to leave him in. Like a boxer being knocked to the mat, Volchko picked himself up and got back to work. He managed to give Georgia three more quality innings.
“That’s what really good big leaguers do,” Johnson said. “They kind of get hit in the mouth with some adversity, and some things happen, but yet they’re still able to grind you out five innings and save your bullpen, keep you in the game, and not give up any more.”
Johnson said starts like those tend to go under the radar because nothing about them is flashy. But that is the kind of stuff Volchko is going to give you each week, a strong and stable effort from a player who wants to do nothing but help his team win.
The junior from Visalia, California, transferred to Georgia after spending two seasons at Stanford. He immediately drew comparisons to 2025 NL Cy Young winner and Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes from his coach.
Johnson said they have a similar body frame and arm talent. And Volchko did reach out to Skenes for advice on where to land in the portal last June. Skenes, also a California native, transferred from Air Force to LSU, where Johnson won a College World Series as the Tigers’ pitching coach in 2023.
“It was a good talk,” Volchko said on Feb. 5. “We kind of talked about baseball and everything under the sun.”
Volchko has been Georgia’s Game 1 starter all season, going 10-2 with a 4.07 ERA and a 104-to-45 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In his previous postseason start in the regionals against Long Island, Volchko tossed six no-hit innings, gave up one run, walked four and struck out 10.
“Stuff, health, recovery, mental game — everything’s improved, right?” Johnson said. “You look at his strikeouts throughout from last year, about four per nine (innings), and just his ability to really understand how to get himself ready.”
If there is one flaw for Volchko, it is the walks. His 45 walks ranked last (296th) in the SEC. His 4.69 walks per nine innings were fourth-most in the league. Volchko allowed at least three walks in eight of his 17 starts.
A starter hasn’t been announced for Georgia’s College World Series opening game versus Texas on Saturday, but if Volchko gets the call, he cannot afford to give up free passes.
“If you don’t throw strikes, they’re not going to swing early. It’s one of the most patient, if not the most patient, offenses in the entire country,” ESPN’s Kyle Peterson said about Texas on a conference call Tuesday. “And Volchko’s stuff is off-the-chart good.
“However, if you force him to throw it over the plate, that’s where you got a real chance, and that’s the piece that I think gets really interesting in that one. We’ll ultimately see, but I do think that that piece really matters.”