2026 MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 16, 2026

Wes Johnson

Dylan Vigue

Tre Phelps

Georgia Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

Georgia - 2, Texas - 0

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Georgia head coach Wes Johnson and student-athletes Tre Phelps and Dylan Vigue.

WES JOHNSON: I thought it was a really good game tonight. Very entertaining. It was going to be tough to score, the conditions, the flags blowing in like they were. There were some balls hit really hard that I don't know if they even got to the track. So you felt like it was going to be a pitching duel.

Their guy came out and was electric for four -- I think he may have had nine, 10 strikeouts through four. I can't remember the exact number. We just told our guys we've got to keep battling. It's going to be tough to score tonight on both sides.

I thought Dylan came out, got us off to a really good start. He had eight punches through four. And then what Justin Byrd was able to do to come in and just attack, attack the strike zone, force contact, force early swings on a night, like I say, when it's really, really tough to score, is going to be the key to that.

And then as crazy as this sounds, we bunted tonight, I think that was our third true sacrifice on the year. It was just going to be that kind of night. And then we actually scored that second run on a ball that's, I don't know, 40 feet behind third on a tag play.

So just proud of our guys, the way we got in there and competed.

Q. Tre, was there a conversation with any of the coaches after your first two at-bats going into the at-bat in the fifth against Harrison?

TRE PHELPS: No, sir, there wasn't. Wes talked to me before the game, and he said, no matter what, whether you're 5-for-5 or 0-for-5, no matter what happens, I just want to see you have fun. And I just kept that going.

Whether once I was 0-for-2 and two Ks, it was whatever. It was like let's get the next at-bat and keep having fun and good things will possibly happen. If they don't, they don't. Let's just keep having fun.

Q. Dylan, I guess just first of all, just when did you learn that you were getting the start today? And obviously since your little injury, been a little scuffle for you a little bit. Talk about overcoming that today. You had the bruise on your shin and just pitching the way you did this afternoon.

DYLAN VIGUE: Yeah, I mean, just to start off, I want to thank my coaches, the training staff and everything. Because I had quite the bruise on there. And they've been tirelessly working on it and just treatment all times of the day and stuff, getting me back to 100 percent for today.

And then just thanking Coach Johnson for giving me the chance and still believe in me. Obviously the past month hasn't been how me or anybody else would have wanted it to go for me. But just to have Coach Johnson's belief in me, that ignites a flame in me and gives me that belief.

Like he told me pregame, this is why you're here, for these big moments like that. And just having his belief and him having my back really fired my confidence and stuff.

Q. Dylan, the starting pitching this weekend, so far, I think it's been the best collective performance out of any other weekend this season -- 21 innings, 29 strikeouts, just three walks and just four earned runs. Just what has it been about you three that have stepped up in on the biggest stage of the season so far?

DYLAN VIGUE: For sure. I think for the whole staff, it's just been inevitable. We've seen it all fall, winter and spring. It was going to click at some point, and it finally is. We have such a talented pitching staff. And everybody, these big games, everybody stepped up to the occasion so far. So it was just a matter of time before it all came together.

Q. Dylan, what was your approach against this Texas lineup? And what did you have going for you tonight?

DYLAN VIGUE: The overall approach was just confidence and belief in every single pitch. That's what Coach Johnson has told me all season and especially going into today. If I'm going to fail, I'm going to make sure I fail 100 percent with full belief, so when I come off that field, there's no regrets.

And it's super easy too when I have the belief of my coaches and my teammates and especially the teammates in the field making all of those plays for me as well.

Q. Can you describe just how tough Harrison was and what he was doing that was making it so hard for you guys?

TRE PHELPS: Yeah, I mean, he was good mixing up different motions, being able to throw in and out of the shadows. He was just making good spots.

Like Wes said, we were going to have to be able to grind out a great pitcher like that. When they're having a great guy on the mound, putting things where he wants, we're going to have to fight as a collective, as a hitting group, and put the ball in play and not go down as many times as we did.

I mean, I know 100 percent Coach Coggin (indiscernible) will turn it around and probably not have the strikeout-to-walk ratio we did today. I'm 100 percent confident of that.

Q. Texas has hit nearly every pitcher this year. Been shut out only one other time. Was it mostly your slider that was most effective? And how especially were you trying to attack Aiden Robbins and Adrian Rodriguez?

DYLAN VIGUE: Yeah, the slider is definitely the most dominant pitch for me. I mean it's kind of been my most dominant pitch all season and stuff. And, again, it just comes down to the belief. It's not necessarily a specific strategy, but it's just attacking with full belief and confidence.

And, I mean, that's what we preach as a pitching staff every single day is just going at 100 percent. And everybody has different tools and stuff. And my strength happens to be my slider, so just attacking with full confidence in that.

Q. (Off mic)?

DYLAN VIGUE: Yeah, specific batters have scouting reports and stuff, but there's a certain point, too, where it becomes attacking hitters with your best stuff as well. It just happened that some of those hitters, it was a good match-up for me in terms of sliders.

Q. What does this kind of win like this do for you guys, your confidence after such a tough loss against OU?

TRE PHELPS: First, I want to give a shout-out to our whole pitching staff for all postseason. They put a great hitting group in their backpack and just carried us all the way to Omaha, where we are now. So we'll leave that there first.

Q. What kind of win does this do for your guys, your confidence after the OU loss?

TRE PHELPS: Just being able to keep the guys to know, yeah, we can do it, we will do it. We've been bouncing back all year. Had some tough losses. If I'm not mistaken, I think we've lost one out of our last 20, 21 or so. So just being able to stay with it no matter what. I think we've done a great job at answering the bell.

DYLAN VIGUE: For sure. I mean, just even to build on that, we've come together as such a team, especially this tournament, I feel like, with having each other's backs, whether the pitchers are having a down day, the hitters are all there season for us -- whether the hitters are having a down day, now we're picking up for them. That's just kind of the team dynamic we have, is being there for each other and coming together and finding a way to win every game.

Q. You were in this position 2023 with LSU. Have you taken any experience from that and kind of attributed it to this team?

WES JOHNSON: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you go back. We lost a really close game. Those games -- all these games are still pretty vivid in your mind. And I think we lost -- man, you just got me -- 4-3, 3-2, something like that, to Wake in a very similar fashion as we lost last night. Came back, had to play another conference opponent in Tennessee again in an elimination game. Was fortunate enough to get that one like we did tonight.

And, yes, so you draw on those experiences, and just tell the guys, yeah, it's been done before. It's not an impossible task. But you're not going to win three games or whatever by trying to do it in one.

And, so, you know first step tonight was go out and play in a really tough conditions against a really, really good pitching staff. And so we got that one and now tomorrow's just another day. We're just going to come out. We get to play baseball again tomorrow, and we get to play nine innings. So what more could you ask?

Q. How common is it to send a runner in that circumstance, like you said, only 40 feet behind third base? What role did the conditions play in that, and how confident were you that he was going to get home?

WES JOHNSON: I think our third base coach, Brock Bennett, did a phenomenal job. We had been talking in between innings about you're going to have to be aggressive tonight and force some action, because, like I said, the conditions. And I think he did a phenomenal job.

When the two young men kind of collided, that's when Ryan took off and gave us an opportunity to get there. If either one of them catch it clean and don't collide and we go, we're probably out.

Q. Tre Phelps had that big double. It felt like he was kind of pressing early in that game and then after that kind of relaxed. Is that something you sensed?

WES JOHNSON: I thought he was pressing yesterday. I didn't think he was pressing all day. We did a lot of things this morning and at BP. And, like I say, Tre is a young man. Every player's different. They have a different personality. They play different. Some guys have to be very stoic and intent. Some guys have to play really loose.

I thought Tre last night was trying to do too much. I thought even though he struck out his first two times, guys, man, Luke was really good for four innings, man.

And so I didn't think his swings were bad the first two at-bats. Just thought that Luke was good and executed some pitches into some spots we had trouble hitting. So I wasn't worried about Tre.

Q. Dylan referenced a conversation that you had with him about big moments. When recruiting him out of the transfer portal from Michigan, did you envision him pitching on this stage? And what did you see from him then and what do you see from him after tonight's performance?

WES JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, always, when you recruit players, I mean, everybody's goal is to get here. So, yeah, you envision that. I think, guys -- we'd be up here a long time if we talked about what I've seen from him from the portal to now.

The biggest thing is, as he talked about, sometimes players need belief and confidence, and they need to know that no matter what, you're going to believe in them. And when they can feel that, it frees them up instead of trying to make perfect pitches. And we've seen that from Dylan. You've seen him grow a lot this year.

He's had a couple of hiccups in the road. The ball come back off his leg and had some issues with his forearm cramping earlier in the year. And we were real precaution at first, and then obviously he was fine. So you look at the adversity he's dealt with this year. We knew what he did tonight, what he was capable of doing all year.

Q. How easy or hard was that decision to go with the sacrifice bunt? And then potentially is Joey a possibility if there's a Thursday game?

WES JOHNSON: First question, yeah, I mean, you just gotta -- we practice bunting. I promise. We do. But, so, tonight it was like -- and Kolby's one of our better bunters. So we felt very confident with it.

As far as the next question, we've got to win tomorrow to even get to Thursday. So I'm not even thinking about that. I'm thinking about who can we get tomorrow. Oklahoma's a really, really good team, and they've got really good players. So we'll have our hands full tomorrow.

Q. When you went to Byrd there, how much of an emphasis was it to get length out of him? How much does it help that you only used two pitchers tonight going into tomorrow?

WES JOHNSON: Anytime you fall into an elimination bracket, anytime you can save pitching, it's massive. So when you look at that, Justin being able to come in and attack the strike zone and finish that game out with length, Justin's had length, thrown in games where he's thrown multiple pitches. So I wasn't worried about it. I think he only finished with like 62 pitches.

Q. Seemed like Texas was just fighting upstream all night as they were Saturday against you. How key was it holding the walks down? I think Texas got one lead-off batter on all game?

WES JOHNSON: It's extremely important when you play Texas, the way they run their offense, to limit your walks and to establish some kind of pitch for a first-pitch strike. You know, they do a good job over there of really punishing you if you walk hitters or you fall behind in the counts.

And that was the game plan obviously for us was to attack the strike zone and do whatever we can to get that lead-off man out.