ATHENS — The sun came up on Sunday morning, just like Wes Johnson knew it would after Saturday night’s shocking 6-3 loss to Duke put Georgia baseball on the brink of NCAA tournament elimination.

The No. 7-nationally seeded Bulldogs (43-16) are still alive, however, and Johnson and his team have every intention of running the table in their double-eliminatin NCAA regional and advancing to the next round.

UGA would need to beat Oklahoma State (29-24) in the noon game on Sunday (TV: ESPN2), and then beat Duke (39-19) at 6 p.m. on Sunday (TV: TBA) to force a decisive game on Monday (time, TBA).

The Cowboys figure to make it tough on Georgia hitters, as they’re expected to start Harrison Bodendorf, a 6-foot-5, left-handed pitcher who is 10-1 and brings in a 2.77 ERA.

Georgia will counter with JT Quinn, a 6-6 transfer from Ole Miss who was sharp in his most recent outing, giving the Bulldogs a 4-inning start in the SEC tourney against Oklahoma that saw him yield one run on three hits with a walk while fanning six batters.

Johnson knows the Bulldogs can handle the toughness part, having navigated through a stacked SEC with an 18-12 league record.

“I love the definition of toughness,” Johnson said. “Toughness is just simply, you’re capable of great endurance, and that’s what you need (Sunday), is you need the toughness that’s capable of great endurance.”

The challenge for Georgia will be getting it done against left-handed pitching, which has been a challenge for the team throughout the season.

Duke bedeviled UGA hitters with three left-handed pitchers on Saturday, and Johnson knows to expect more of the same on Sunday.

The Bulldogs entered Saturday night’s game 11th among SEC teams hitting against left-handed pitching, carrying a .260 batting average.

Georgia had nine hits in the Saturday night loss, but it managed just one hit through the first five innings as it fell behind Duke 4-1, finishing the game 1-of-8 hitting with runners in scoring position.

“We got off some good swings; we got off our ‘A’ swings,” Johnson said. “We just came with nothing to show for it.”

Johnson, in his second year leading the program, is confident his team will be dialed-in with the season on the line.

“I feel really good about where we are against left handers,” Johnson said. “We’re going to see them all day (Sunday). If we win the first one, (Duke) is gonna throw a lefty in the second game.”

Georgia team captain Henry Hunter, who homered in the Saturday night loss to Duke, indicated the Bulldogs will go back to the formula that enabled them to lead the nation in home runs and run up a 30-5 record at home.

“We just got to do a little bit better job of slowing the game down and shrinking the strike zone,” Hunter said, “getting a good pitch to hit, and putting ourselves in better position.”

Johnson said there’s nothing complicated about it, Georgia will “sell out” to win one game at a time.

“Your message is real simple,” Johnson said, asked what he would tell his team. “Guys, we we’re still playing baseball tomorrow, and we are really good, and we got plenty of pitchers to go tomorrow, (and) we’ll be ready to hit.”