Top Draft prospect Condon snaps Georgia's single-season, all-time HR record
Kenny Van Doren
@thevandalorianFrom walk-on to top prospect status, Charlie Condon exceeded any expectations set out for himself.
His stardom took flight after a redshirt season with his home state Georgia Bulldogs in 2022. Condon sat out a full year before leaping into game action as a redshirt freshman in '23, a year which slotted himself amongst the highest-rated prospects for the 2024 MLB Draft before he so much as took a swing this season.
Now ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the 2024 Draft, Condon has continued to chase history as his college career has been nothing short of historic. The towering right-handed hitter clubbed two home runs across a doubleheader Saturday, clubbing his way into the record books.
Condon connected on his 28th and 29th roundtrippers of the season, pushing his career total to 54 and breaking the all-time record at Georgia. Both marks were previously held by Gordon Beckham, who also went deep 28 times in 2008 for the single-season record, and coincidently, his all-time mark was snapped with Condon's second homer of the day too.
"It's amazing," Condon said on the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network. "This is what I've worked really hard for. ... For it to pay off in a group like this, I just love being able to contribute with such a great group of good guys and all that good stuff. It means a lot. We're not done yet, but we're just going to keep on rolling, and hopefully, there's a couple more coming."
In terms of his presence at the plate this season, Condon is averaging a home run every 5.76 at-bats; the lowest mark in the AL/NL Modern Era came in 2001 from the Giants' Barry Bonds (6.52).
In his second at-bat of the first inning of Game 1, Condon sent a top-rail, 93 mph fastball to straightaway center field for his second homer of the weekend against Texas A&M.
Condon broke into the history books with his NCAA DI-leading 29th homer of the year in the top of the seventh in Game 2. He shot the barrel of his bat to the bottom of the zone and sent an 83 mph pitch off the scoreboard in left-center field over a four-man outfield from the Texas A&M Aggies, giving the Bulldogs a three-run lead en route to a 5-4 victory.
"I don't think since it was regular and peewee baseball -- when they had the right-center and left-center -- I don't think since then," Condon laughed about facing a four-man outfield.
"I would have loved to beat that shift once. I was trying to do it all weekend, get a little squeaky ground ball in the second-base hole. But it's just really sticking to my same approach right now and knowing what I do well and what the pitcher does well and just trying to find the gaps in there."
Condon's first homer as the top ranked prospect -- a no-doubter to left-center field at Blue Bell Park -- was a rocket, as he showcased his 70-grade power Friday, kickstarting a three-homer weekend. The 21-year-old has now gone deep 29 times in just 43 games, keeping him on pace to post the highest HR-per-game rate since Augusta University's Keith Hammond (0.74) in 1987.
"I'm speechless," Georgia coach Wes Johnson said. "They did a really good job. They pitched him tough this weekend.
"I thought they had one of the better plans against Charlie I've seen all year, and Charlie was a little frustrated at times -- which they kept getting him to ground out and throwing some really, really good edge pitches as we call them. Tip your hat to them. But I want to tell you what, they made a couple mistakes; and when they did, he hit it a long ways."
Despite going 2-for-8 over the course of the doubleheader, Condon still leads D1 in batting average (.461), home runs and is firmly in position to become the highest Draft pick in school history this July (Jeff Pyburn, fifth overall in 1980).