With its season on the line, Georgia needs its bullpen more than ever

Georgia’s message from here on out is simple: Survive and advance.

The Bulldogs find themselves in the loser’s bracket at the College World Series following a 4-3 loss to Oklahoma on Monday night and will now have to beat Texas in an elimination game Tuesday.

A win over the Longhorns would set up another rematch with Oklahoma on Wednesday, needing to beat the Sooners twice in order to punch a ticket to the championship series.

Now, normally, teams that enter the loser’s bracket are either running thin on pitching or out of it. But for Georgia, the exact opposite has happened, and it now needs to be a lifeline to keep the Dawgs’ season alive.

Through two games, pitching has not been the issue. UGA has used a total of two arms in Omaha — the fewest among the remaining six teams — after getting back-to-back complete games from Joey Volchko and Caden Aoki.

It is the first time since 2004 that a single team has had back-to-back complete games in the CWS since Cal State Fullerton’s Jason Windsor and Ricky Romero did it.

In those two starts, Volchko and Aoki combined to give up just five runs and struck out 21 batters.

As a result, UGA has not had to use its bullpen.

For a moment, it looked like Aoki was going to be in deep trouble after allowing four runs in the first four innings, but he settled in to give Georgia a chance moving forward.

“I thought Caden was awesome tonight,” UGA coach Wes Johnson said postgame Monday. “We had a hiccup there in the first and for him to finish the game for us was massive as you look forward and saving your bullpen.”

It now turns this win-or-go-home game Tuesday into a full-fledged arms race to combat a Texas lineup that scored 14 runs against Alabama earlier Monday afternoon.

While there is no starter announced, do not be surprised if this turns into a group effort from a pitching staff on a thin leash when on the mound. The two most likely options to take the mound first will be Dylan Vigue or Matt Scott.

Vigue has been in Georgia’s weekend rotation just about the whole season — starting in 15 of his 17 appearances — but has struggled since returning from forearm cramping that sidelined him for nearly a month.

In his previous five outings, Vigue has combined to throw 11 innings, allowing 18 hits, 20 runs, nine walks and as many strikeouts.

However, Johnson has not lost confidence in him, revealing before the College World Series that Vigue would have started Game 3 of the super regional against Mississippi State.

As for Scott, he has been one of the best pieces to this much-improved bullpen from a year ago. However, in his two appearances during supers, he was not good. Scott tossed 2.12⅓ innings, gave up six hits — including one double and three homers — and struck out three.

Scott has only made one start this year, on April 12 versus Florida, and it did not go well. The Stanford transfer went 1⅓ innings and allowed five runs on as many hits, including three homers. Still, he made 38 career starts for the Cardinal, so it would not be a shock to see him starting.

Other pitchers in the mix will be Justin Byrd, Zach Brown, Caleb Jameson, Paul Farley and Grant Edwards. All year this group has delivered in clutch moments, and it will need to again to keep the season going.

In a perfect world, whoever does start gives UGA at least five solid innings to not tax the pen. Because if the Bulldogs win, they will need someone ready for another bullpen game Wednesday before possibly getting Volchko back for Thursday.

Regardless of who ends up throwing, getting ahead in counts is going to be critical against Texas.

The Longhorns drew the third-most walks in the country with 380 — partly because they will not chase pitches, forcing pitchers to attack the zone like Volchko did during his 15-strikeout performance. Of Volchko’s 113 pitches, 75% were strikes.

Even facing elimination, Georgia is not going to panic and will stick to its approach that got the Bulldogs here.