Charlie Condon named preseason All-American, predictions for Georgia
Baseball season is a week away in Athens, and for Georgia, it’s the beginning of a new era. In his first season leading the Bulldogs is head coach Wes Johnson, but he’ll have a talented returnee to lead the way: Charlie Condon.
Named a preseason All-American by the National College Baseball Writers Association, D1Baseball, Baseball America and others, Condon is widely considered a potential top-10 pick in the coming year’s MLB Draft. He won National Freshman of the Year in 2023 after coming onto the scene in his first year removed from a redshirt. Condon finished seventh in the NCAA with 25 home runs – most by a freshman in the SEC since 2006 – as he captured the team’s Triple Crown with a .386 batting average and 67 RBI. His slugging percentage was tops in the SEC while the batting average was second only to Dylan Crews – Golden Spikes winner and No. 2 overall pick. Condon was a also a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy – both of which are awarded (by different organizations) to the nation’s top player.
Condon spent the summer playing for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team after starting off in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League. At the time of his departure for Team USA, Condon led the league with 10 RBI in 11 games for the Falmouth Commodores.
With the national team, Condon shined. He hit a team-best .533 over the course of training camp before providing one of the highlights of the summer with a walk-off on the Fourth of July.
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“I spent three and a half years in the big leagues, and Charlie Condon – you can’t ever guarantee that somebody’s going to get there, injuries come up and become a part of things – but that guy’s got a chance to play in the big leagues for a long time,” Johnson said about Condon during the fall. “He’s showing that he can play a lot of different positions. How big is he for our team? Massive. In my opinion, we’ve got probably the best right handed hitter in all of college baseball.”
Of course there’s more to Georgia’s team than Condon, and the Bulldogs will need others to emerge as well. Returnees to the lineup include Corey Collins, Fernando Gonzalez and others. UGA also added several from the transfer portal like Dillon Center (Texas Tech), Clayton Chadwick (Sam Houston State), Kolby Branch (Baylor), Logan Jordan (Campbell), Paul Toetz (Purdue) and Slate Alford (Mississippi State). There are others, and then there are the pitchers: Charlie Goldstein, Leighton Finley, Jarvis Evans, Coleman Willis, Chandler Marsh, Zach Harris (Georgia Southern), Brian Zeldin (Penn), Daniel Padysak (Charleston Southern) and Brandt Pancer (Stanford) to name a few.
Georgia was picked sixth out of seven squads in the SEC East in the preseason predictions put out by the league’s 14 head coaches. Condon was the only Bulldog selected to an All-SEC team (Second Team – 1B). Arkansas (9 SEC – 9 SEC West) earned the nod of the coaches as the SEC favorite while LSU (3 SEC – 5 SEC West) and Florida (2 SEC – 11 SEC East) also received votes. Tennessee (2) and Vanderbilt (1) each got a vote to win the East as well.
