Georgia playing best baseball at right time with regional on the line

With just six games remaining in the regular season, Georgia Baseball has its eyes set on some big time goals. In year one under Wes Johnson, the Bulldogs are in a position to potentially host an NCAA Tournament Regional in Athens – something done just six times before in program history and most recently in 2019. After missing out on the dance last year and being seen as a likely bubble team at the start of the season, Johnson has his guys embracing the opportunity that’s ahead of them.

“If you don’t ever think about it, if you don’t ever lay in your bed at night and see yourself doing things here, then how are you ever going to do them? You’ve got to talk about it,” the first-year head coach said on Sunday after completing a sweep over two-time national champion Vanderbilt, coached by a veteran of over 20 years in the league. “It shouldn’t be this unicorn. You first have to talk about it, then you have to think about it, then you’ve got to believe that you can do it, and that is where we’re at.”

Not coincidentally, Johnson’s team is also playing its best baseball. Georgia has been powered primarily by an offense that’s hit a school-record number of home runs. Potential No. 1 overall pick Charlie Condon leads the nation with 33 of his own – trailing only single-season records set in the pre-BBCOR bat era – while others like Corey Collins, Kolby Branch, Fernando Gonzalez, Dylan Goldstein and Slate Alford have chipped in to the attack as well. However, while the bats are still hot, the Bulldogs’ pitching has seemingly come around, allowing five or fewer runs in eight of the last 10 games. Leighton Finley won SEC Pitcher of the Week on Monday. At the same time, Kolten Smith, Zach Harris and Chandler Marsh continue to improve with Charlie Goldstein getting healthy again and Brian Zeldin and Josh Roberge remaining fairly consistent.

“Both sides of the ball we were dominant. The staff was throwing up zeros left and right, and we were coming up – I don’t know what the percentage of what number of innings we scored runs in this weekend, but it was a lot,” Condon said after the Vanderbilt series, asked what’s allowing this team to play its best at the right time. “To be able to go up there and always provide insurance – in the past we’ve had some issues about putting up a big inning early and then kind of going quiet, but we just strung together really good at bats in every inning. It’s really hard to beat when we do that.”

“We’re pitching a little bit better. The offense has been what it is. We’ve had some guys hold us down during that stretch as well, but I think we’re throwing the ball a little bit better,” Johnson added on the same topic. “Some guys, it’s not easy – I go back to when we started this year, I had three guys on this staff that had been five innings in a Division 1 baseball game. People think it’s easy, ‘Oh this guy’s got good stuff. Just throw him out there and let him go five.’ Boy, it’s a journey, man – especially in this league.”

Georgia, winners of 11 of its last 15, heads to South Carolina this weekend for a Thursday-Saturday three-game set. Then, it’s back to Athens to take on Florida next week.

Currently sitting at 35-12 overall with a 13-11 mark in the SEC, the Bulldogs have some work to do to secure themselves the Regional host spot they desire. While both D1Baseball and Baseball America projected them as such on Wednesday, at least splitting the final six games is likely a requirement. Winning four or more might be enough to earn them a national seed and the inside track at a Super Regional in Athens too.

“We’ve got six tough ones left. South Carolina is really good at home and the Florida Gators are fighting for their life so we’ve just got to take one pitch at a time on Thursday,” Johnson said.

“We control our own destiny as far as the post-season goes,” Condon added. “We’re focused on the next series but that’s a big part of what we’re playing for right now. Taking care of business when we have an SEC opponent in our own place is super important. We just played three really solid baseball games this weekend. We’re in control of what we want. We can still do anything. We can host. We can bring the playoffs back to us and that would be really fun.”