After another come-from-behind victory in the College World Series, the Georgia Bulldogs will spend tonight as spectators — watching two teams they have already defeated fight for survival.

No matter who wins the elimination game between Miami and Stanford, David Perno and his charges know they are merely one victory away from playing in the best-of-3 national championship series in Omaha.

Georgia will take on Wednesday’s winner Friday at 2 p.m. The game will be televised live on ESPN2.

The Dawgs (43-23-1), now 2-0 at Rosenblatt Stadium, topped Stanford (40-23-2) 4-3 Tuesday with yet another signature rally. Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh — and down to the final out of the inning — Gordon Beckham singled and sophomore Rich Poythress walked, then Bryce Massanari was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

That gave Matt Cerione the chance to be the hero as he singled to center, driving in two runs and giving UGA a 4-3 lead it would maintain the rest of the way.

“I knew it was my turn,” Cerione said. “Coach just told me to look for a ball I could square up, and I got a hit up the middle. It’s a fantastic feeling.”

The last time Georgia started a CWS with wins in its first two games was in 1990 when it defeated Mississippi State 3-0 and Stanford 16-2 before going on to win the national championship.

Cerione was 2-for-3 Monday with 3 RBI, all with two-outs, to lead the Bulldog offense. Beckham was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and David Thoms was also 2-for-4.

The Bulldogs’ bullpen worked the final six innings in relief of senior starter Nick Montgomery, allowing one run on one hit.

In 11 innings at the CWS, the Bulldog firemen have yielded just one run.

“We got tremendous relief pitching again,” Perno said. “Stephen Dodson, Alex McRee and Joshua Fields did a great job. We hung in there and got the big hit when we needed it. We’ve won two games against two very good teams and we’re excited to be 2-0 and now get ready for Friday.”

Nick Montgomery was chased after allowing three runs on five hits over the first three innings, prompting Perno to give Stephen Dodson the call.

Dodson worked 3.2 innings to help set up Alex McRee for the win while Joshua Fields was credited with the save.

McRee got the final out of the seventh and worked a scoreless eighth to up his record to 7-1 on the season.

Fields, pitching in a save situation for the first time since May 13, issued a walk and hit a batter but did not allow a hit. He is tied for second nationally with 17 saves and now has 40 in his career.

“It definitely is very satisfying, and I think what makes it even more satisfying is that it hasn’t always been like this,” Fields said. “This year we’ve really worked on stuff during the off-season, and the way that Dean (Weaver) and (Alex) McRee have really stepped it up towards the middle and the end of the year has been huge for us. I know the Lord has blessed me very much this year, but having guys like that who can go the seventh and eighth innings so that I can throw the ninth inning instead of throwing the eighth and the ninth or even the seventh, eighth and ninth takes a huge amount of pressure off of me.

“It’s very satisfying to see, especially those young guys, stepping up.”

And now Georgia needs to step up one more time to get a chance to play for a national title.

“Unbelievable,” Beckham said of his team’s run in the CWS. “You can substitute a lot of words for that, but this is exactly the way we wanted to do it. We usually do it the hard way through the Regional and the Super Regional, and we’ve started off really well here obviously at 2-0. We’ve got a little time off, and we can rest and recuperate to get ready for Friday. I think that it’s just a tribute to this team on how hard we’ve played these last two games.

“We’ve been down, and we’ve come back. We’ve won two games against two very good teams and I give them all the credit in the world, but we’ve come out on top.”

Regardless of whether Miami or Stanford provide the competition Friday, Perno said his team will be ready.

“We’ve got enough weapons in our lineup where eventually we’re going to break through and score,” he said. “Our relief pitching has the ability to change the momentum of a game … they’ve done it all year.”