ATHENS — There’s something special happening for Georgia baseball with the players rallying around one another and playing for their head coach.

That’s the culture second-year coach Wes Johnson has built, to the extent on Sunday that the players’ sentiment was “This one’s for Wes” after the Bulldogs beat No. 1-ranked Arkansas to clinch a historic series win with a 7-6 victory in 12 innings.

It was the sort of win Georgia baseball -- now up to No. 5 in the D1Baseball Poll -- has built up to being able to pull off, and it should provide momentum for the Tuesday night game against No. 14 Georgia Tech at Truist Park in Atlanta.

The Bulldogs (32-6, 10-5 SEC) overcame five errors in the game, handled the emotion of blowing an early 4-2 lead and giving up a game-tying home run just one out away from the win, and then rallied after falling behind Arkansas (32-5, 12-3) in extra innings.

It was Georgia’s first series win over a No. 1-ranked team since beating Vanderbilt in 2021, and it’s first home series win over a No. 1-ranked team since 1993 (Mississippi State).

Johnson, usually one for words of wisdom, was emotional after the win — proud of catcher Henry Hunter after the senior delivered the game-winning home run in walk-off fashion against the type of left-handed pitching he had struggled with all season.

“That left-handed hitter was not even hitting .100 against left-handed pitching,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn lamented. “I didn’t know it was going to when it left the bat. I think the only guy who though it was going was the hitter …”

Hunter, a fiery team captain, proudly wore the “I love hitting left-handed pitching” shirt that Johnson had put in the team’s locker before Thursday’s practice during his post-game interview.

“We really wanted this, especially for Coach Johnson, knowing that he was there (at Arkansas),” Hunter said, referring to Johnson’s two-year stint under Van Horn, a coaching legend he considers a mentor.

“We met as a group earlier this weekend and said how much it meant to (Johnson) after Friday night, was kind of a disappointing night,” Hunter said. “We wanted to get back on track and do it for him, he does a lot for us and he fights his butt off for us, and we felt like we owed it back to him to play as hard as we could no matter what the result was.”

Johnson had challenged his players after their Friday night collapse to look in the mirror.

The Bulldogs had allowed a 3-3 game through six innings to turn into a 13-3 loss — the largest losing margin of the season.

“I thought we played really good for six innings, and then we fell to the illusion of competition,” Johnson said, “and what was on the front of the (Arkansas) jersey, and rankings by whoever …. "

Georgia, which entered the Arkansas series having been swept at then-No. 2 (now No. 1) Texas last weekend, responded with a nail-biting, 7-6 win on Saturday, nearly squandering the 7-3 lead it had taken into the eighth inning.

The Sunday afternoon finale got off to a good start, the Bulldogs going up 3-1 in the bottom of the second inning on Kolby Branch’s fourth home run of the week, but the Hogs scratched their way back with the help of UGA’s uncharacteristic five-errors in the field.

Neither Hunter — nor any member of the Georgia baseball team — wanted to let Johnson down again.

“He was a little disappointed in us (Friday night), just disappointed in our effort, disappointed in how we fought, we punched first, and we got punched in the face back and laid down and they beat us,” Hunter said. “We wanted to come out and play with some more belief, some more fire.

“We gave (Arkansas) too much credit Friday night and we came back on Saturday and Sunday and wanted to flip the script, we know we’re really good, and that’s a talented team, but we’re good, too.”

Reliever Brian Zeldin, who came on in relief to get the win with 3 1/3 innings of one-hit relief, referred to how Johnson’s coaching helped him stayed poised after the Razorbacks scored an unearned run without the ball leaving the infield to take the lead in the top of the 11th inning.

“Wes keeps preaching staying calm, cool and collected, it doesn’t really matter the situation we’re in,” Zeldin said. “We’re just taking caring care of business, that’s all it is, attacking the zone and getting it done.”

Van Horn noted how Georgia pitching held Arkansas’ middle of the order down, and came up with clutch outs with runners on base.

“(Batters) three-four-five-fix, we got like one hit and hit one other ball hard,” Van Horn said. “We did fight back, tie the game with one out to go, it was pretty exciting there for a couple innings. “We ended up with eight stranded, and they ended up with three …. they had five errors, we made one …. maybe you give Georgia’s pitchers a little credit.”

Hunter gave Johnson credit, sharing an emotional embrace with his head coach after the game.

“We gave each other a big old hug, and said we loved each other,” Hunter said. " I just told him ‘Thank you for believing in me,’ he’s the man.

“I can’t say enough good things about him as a mentor and as coach, he’s an awesome human being and awesome head coach.”

Georgia travels to play at No. 19 Vanderbilt after its Tuesday night game with the Yellow Jackets, facing the Commodores at 7 p.m. on Thursday night for the opening of the SEC series.

The Bulldogs have another challenging non-conference game on the road at No. 3 Clemson on April 22 before retiring home to play host to No. 18 Oklahoma in a three-game series on April 24-25-26 at Foley Field.