Georgia's Leighton Finley wins SEC Pitcher of the Week
Wes Johnson is known as a pitching guru. The Georgia head coach was hired at UGA after most recently helping LSU to a national title as the pitching coach for the Bayou Bengals. Other stops previously included Dallas Baptist, Mississippi State, Arkansas and the Minnesota Twins. While pitching hasn’t necessarily been the strong suit of Georgia’s attack in Johnson’s first year, two of his pitchers have been recognized recently – and as a staff, they’re making strides. On Monday, sophomore right-hander Leighton Finley earned the nod as SEC Pitcher of the Week, the first Bulldog to receive the honor this season.
Finley threw 6.0 scoreless innings for Georgia on Friday night in a 10-0 run-rule victory over Vanderbilt. Striking out 11, also a carer-high along with the length of the outing, Finley allowed just three singles on the night with only two runnings reaching scoring position. The three-hit shutout set the tone for a sweep of the Commodores, UGA’s first since 2003. On the season, the 6-foot-5, 235-pound native of Richmond Hill, Ga. has made 12 starts this season with a 4-1 record and a 4.53 ERA, recording 54 strikeouts in 53.2 innings.
“My confidence level is definitely going up, I’m starting to get more in tune with my body and really get the pitches going including being able to get ahead in the count and execute,” Finley said after the game on Friday. “I was able to execute my slider tonight. I’ve been struggling with that, but it went really well tonight.”
Finley isn’t the only Georgia pitcher that’s been recognized recently. Just last week, relief pitcher Brian Zeldin was included on the midseason list for the Stopper of the Year award. He closed out the win for the Bulldogs after Finley’s 6.0 innings with 1.0 of his own and threw again for Georgia on Sunday in the sweep-clinching victory. On the season, Zeldin, a graduate transfer from Penn, has made a team-high 18 appearances with 39.0 innings pitched. His ERA is currently 4.62 while the strikeout to walk ratio sits at 33-21. In his 39 innings, Zeldin has allowed just 38 hits and 21 runs, 20 of which are earned.
Previous Georgia players this season to earn SEC honors include Charlie Condon, Corey Collins and Slate Alford. The Bulldogs, now 35-12 on the season and 13-11 in SEC play, have just six games remaining in the regular season – all against conference competition. A road series at South Carolina awaits on Thursday, Friday and Saturday before another Thursday-Saturday series to wrap up the regular season the following weekend. That one comes at home against Florida.
First pitch between the Bulldogs and Gamecocks on Thursday is set for 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPNU. Games two and three follow at 5:30 and 2:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network (Friday) and SEC Network+ (Saturday).
Charlie Condon Doing Special Things
Georgia superstar Charlie Condon continued doing special things over the weekend. The Walker School product and Marietta, Ga. native has hit home runs in seven straight games including each of Georgia’s four this past week.
Condon’s total on the season of 33 ties an NCAA record during the BBCOR era (set in 71 games last season by Florida’s Jac Caglianone) and is second-most in SEC history behind Brandon Larson’s 40 in 1997. Furthermore, he’s hit safely in 18 straight games and is on track to take Georgia’s Triple Crown once again with a nation-leading .459 batting average, a team-high 69 RBI and his NCAA-best 33 home runs. He also leads UGA in doubles (16), runs scored (70, 25 more than any teammate) and hits (83, 20 more than any teammate).
Condon is considered by many the favorite to go with the first overall pick in this summer’s MLB Draft, which would make Georgia just the third school in the nation to have first picks in the MLB, NBA and NFL drafts joining UCLA and LSU.
“It’s been really good to see this team compete on both sides of the ball as well as we did this weekend. It’s the most complete we’ve played as a group this season which is really exciting to see this time of year,” Condon said about the sweep. “It’s great. The team success definitely feels way better than the personal success. It’s always way more fun in the locker room after a win and a big series win like this. I’ll take that any day of the week over having a good game individually. For it to be together, it’s awesome.”
UGA Rising in the Rankings
With a 4-0 week that saw a sweep of Vanderbilt and a midweek win over Kennesaw State, Wes Johnson’s squad is continuing to make a strong case to host an NCAA Tournament Regional in Athens. The selection committee chooses 16 host sites from around the country with the top eight remaining teams having an opportunity to host Super Regionals at their home stadium as well. While still three weeks away from the announcement of the bracket on May 27th, UGA certainly is in a strong spot.
D1Baseball: No. 15 (Up from No. 19)
Baseball America: No. 14 (Previously unranked)
USA Today Coaches: No. 12 (Up from No. 18, Georgia’s highest ranking last week)
According to D1Baseball, the rankings used by ESPN to highlight the nation’s top teams, Tennessee took over the No. 1 spot from Texas A&M. The Aggies drop to No. 3 with Clemson in between. Georgia has a win over each of those three teams.
Fourth-ranked Kentucky also represents an opponent of UGA’s. The Bulldogs fell in a sweep to the Wildcats to open SEC play in Lexington. Add in a dropped series against No. 14 Mississippi State and an upcoming date with No. 13 South Carolina and all five of Georgia’s series against teams currently ranked have come (or will occur) on the road. Vanderbilt, ranked No. 17 by D1Baseball entering last weekend, dropped out of the top 25 on Monday, as did Alabama (previously No. 23). UGA swept both squads at Foley Field this season.
