Draft prospect Condon hits 34th HR, most in D1 since 2011
Georgia slugger goes deep in 8th straight game
Ben Weinrib
@benweinribThe top prospect in the 2024 Draft has solidified his status as the premier power in college baseball's bat-ball coefficient of restitution era.
Georgia slugger Charlie Condon launched his 34th home run of the season in Thursday's 14-10 win over South Carolina, which marked the highest single-season total since the NCAA instituted BBCOR bats in 2011.
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Top prospects:
Condon | Bazzana | Caglianone | Kurtz | Montgomery | Smith | Burns | Wetherholt | Griffin | Culpepper
Not only that, but the 21-year-old's record-breaking roundtripper extended his homer streak to eight games. That's one shy of the all-time NCAA mark, which Jac Caglianone, the No. 3 Draft prospect who racked up 33 long balls last season, tied earlier in April.
Condon has been the paragon of power in Georgia's lineup all season, and Thursday's game exemplified his campaign.
The third baseman crushed an RBI double to left-center field at 107 mph in the first inning and then jumped on the first pitch of his second plate appearance, a low fastball, to wallop the historic dinger 428 feet at 105 mph. After that, South Carolina didn't give him much to hit, as he walked twice (once intentionally) and popped out twice.
The sophomore has been downright dominant, leading Division I in batting average (.459) and slugging percentage (1.114) while ranking third in on-base percentage (.570). To state it plainly, he's been so productive that a single would lower his slugging percentage. When he's not mashing, he's displayed excellent plate discipline, as his two free passes increased his walk-to-strikeout ratio to 62/35, with 20 of those walks intentional.
Condon is following up an impressive 2023 campaign in which he set an SEC freshman record with 25 homers. This season, he's further tapped into his power by routinely elevating the ball. He's hitting it on the ground less (27.3 percent heading into Thursday's game) and in the air more (54 percent) while converting an astonishing 40.7 percent of his fly balls into home runs, the fifth-best rate in Division I.
The native of Marietta, Ga., still has five more regular-season games left to play before the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament, so he's expected to further pad that home-run total. After all, he's gone deep in 26 of his 48 games so far.
And whether or not he becomes the No. 1 overall Draft pick on July 14, he's already No. 1 in the record books.