Wes Johnson talks Georgia approach to SEC Tournament, postseason

ATHENS, Ga. — Listen to Wes Johnson talk, and even after a series loss against Florida to wrap up the regular season you can hear the voice of a confident coach. He knows his Georgia Baseball team is in a great position entering the postseason, and that’s got an affect on the way the Bulldogs are approaching the SEC Tournament.

Georgia will open play in Hoover early Tuesday morning. First pitch is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. locally (10:30 a.m. ET, SEC Network) against LSU with the winner playing at least two more games – the first of which would come on Wednesday (10:30 a.m. ET, SEC Network) against co-champion Kentucky, who received a bye.

“Whoever plays Tuesday is going to be behind the eight ball on the mound,” Johnson told reporters after Saturday’s 19-11 loss to Florida. “Then if you win Tuesday, you’re going to be behind the eight ball on the mound Wednesday. Your pitching obviously won’t reset until Thursday, and if you’re in a position you don’t have to win those games, you’ve got to be careful on how fast you do reset your pitching based on what you’ve got the next week.”

The Bulldogs enter the SEC Tournament with a 39-14 record overall and a 17-13 mark in the SEC. It’s 10 more wins already than UGA had last season and most since 2019. Not coincidentally, that’s the last time Georgia hosted an NCAA Tournament regional in Athens, and with it looking likely this year’s squad will have that same opportunity, Johnson admits there’s some thinking ahead that’s already happening.

“Don’t know how things are going to play out. Obviously we’re going to be in a regional somewhere. You want to make sure you’re putting yourself in the best position to be competitive game one of that, whenever and wherever that is,” the first-year head coach said. ” … The SEC Tournament, you have to be careful if you don’t have to win it or win games to get in because you can catch yourself stretching guys too far, and then you get back in and you’re just so tired and beat up the next week.”

As for the postseason as a whole, there’s a bit of a different mindset. Johnson was part of a special postseason run last season at LSU, helping the Tigers bring home a national title as the team’s pitching coach. He’s also made runs to Omaha with Mississippi State and Arkansas and knows there’s no better preparation for the type of teams you’ll see this time of year than playing in the SEC.

“I think why the league typically does so well: it’s going to be tough to find two guys – I can find more than just yesterday, but you look at what (Liam) Peterson did on the mound yesterday and then (Brandon) Neely right after, it’s going to be tough to find two guys better than what you just saw right there … You don’t see that a ton, and I could keep going. There’s other guys that we’ve seen in this league,” Johnson said.

“What this league does, it’s almost like, ‘Can you just get to a regional?’ You can go back and we can talk for a long time about what (2022) Ole Miss did, coming in with 13 wins or whatever and then goes and wins the whole thing, you’re just so primed up in this league,” he continued. “It’s just so tough. And yeah, there’s a handful of guys that’s probably better than what we’ve seen, but come on man, Jac Caglianone today, that guy’s in the batters box, are you going to see a better left handed bat than that? That guy’s a monster. You look at A&M and what we were able to do with their offense, able to hold them down at times, (Jace) LaViolette and (Braden) Montgomery, we’ve seen the best offenses in the country. It should give you a ton of confidence to be able to take that and compete.”

Georgia star, and potential SEC Player of the Year, Charlie Condon added to Johnson’s comments, describing the mentality of the postseason as one where you’re trying to end other’s seasons. He was a true freshman taking a redshirt season last time the Bulldogs made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2022. This time, he’s the center of attention and a team leader trying to get the Bulldogs back on track after a tough last two games.

“If anything I think it’s a bit of a wake up call,” Condon said about Georgia dropping its final regular season series against rival Florida. “We are in a good spot but we’re not a finished product by any means. We’ve been playing good baseball recently, but any day you can go out there and give up a 12-spot and it’s about what you’ve got left in the tank after that happens. I think this team did a good job showing some fight. At the end, we were right there with it, able to stay in the game and not give at bats away, pitchers coming in trying to get out and do the best they can with the given situation.”

“Obviously you’re playing to end people’s seasons now and you’re fighting for yours. There’s a little bit more on the line,” Condon added about the postseason. “As far as from a player’s perspective, it’s still the same game about being ready to go from the first pitch and worrying about each individual pitch, not thinking too big picture. Focus on us and control what we can control.”

Georgia currently sits top-10 in all major rankings including a No. 6 ranking in the RPI after Saturday. At last projection, the Bulldogs were slotted to host a regional in Athens with potential teams joining them like NC State, Southern Miss, Georgia Tech, UCF, Austin Peay and Bryant. UGA entered the weekend likely on the line of potential a top-8 national seed but with the Bulldogs’ loss, might have ground to make up – still expected to host a regional seeded somewhere 9-16.