Baseball rankings update after Georgia drops series to Florida
The latest polls are out for College Baseball, and after a disappointing end to the regular season, Georgia has dropped out of the top-10, at least according to one ranking service.
D1Baseball sent Georgia down to No. 11 from No. 9 after UGA went 1-2 against Florida. Wake Forest also fell from the top-10, going from No. 8 to No. 22 after being swept by NC State. Taking the place of the Bulldogs and Demon Deacons were Oklahoma and East Carolina, both of whom won big series in their effort to host a regional for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
That’s not the only ranking however, and Baseball America still considers the Dawgs to be a top-10 team. After having Georgia at No. 6 last week, the publication only dropped Wes Johnson’s squad two spots to No. 8. For them, the top-10 only changed in order, still keeping UGA and Wake in despite the dropped series.
Georgia won the opener against Florida on the back of an impressive performance from Kolten Smith on the mound. He threw 8.0 innings and struck out 12 before turning things over to Christian Mracna to finish things off. Dillon Carter returned to the lineup with his first at-bat since suffering a knee injury in early April, hitting a pair of home runs, while Paul Toetz tied a career-high with his third three-hit game of the season. Both veterans had 3 RBI while Slate Alford added a pair himself.
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The win extended UGA’s streak to nine overall – eight in SEC play – before Florida snapped it on Friday. Georgia let multi-run leads slip in both games two and three of the series, securing themselves the six-seed (and the early game) in the SEC Tournament in the process.
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UGA still seems in a good position to host a regional in Athens to start the NCAA Tournament with an RPI ranking of No. 6 in the nation and a record of 39-14 (17-13 SEC). Both D1 and Baseball America projected the Bulldogs to host last week, although they were split on whether UGA would be a top-8 national seed and in a position for a super regional in Athens.
After dropping the series to Florida, there’s likely work to be done but opportunities ahead should Georgia take advantage of them. UGA will take on defending national champion LSU Tuesday morning in Hoover with first pitch set for 9:30 a.m. locally, 10:30 a.m. ET, on the SEC Network. The winner between the Bulldogs and Tigers will advance to the double-elimination portion of the bracket with SEC co-champion Kentucky awaiting Wednesday morning.
