Georgia Baseball eyeing spot as NCAA Tournament Regional host
We’re coming down the stretch of baseball season and bracketology is in full swing. On Wednesday, D1Baseball and Baseball America both released their updated looks at the postseason, and each has Georgia as a host. The No. 14 national seed, the Bulldogs would welcome Wake Forest and Southern Miss to town for the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament with the four seed either being Austin Peay (D1) or Kennesaw State (BA).
Georgia last hosted Regionals in 2019, a second straight opportunity to do so and sixth in program history. The Bulldogs fell in both 2018 and 2019 against ACC competition – Duke the first year and Florida State the second. However, in each of the four previous times hosting, Georgia advanced out of the Regional (2001, 2004, 2006 and 2008).
If chalk were to hold in the projected brackets, Georgia would be hitting the road for a Super Regional at either Tennessee (D1) or Clemson (BA). Each are the projected No. 3 national seed and would host the best-of-three set with a spot in Omaha on the line.
Georgia has six appearances in the College World Series to its name, last doing so in 2008. That also happens to be the last time the Bulldogs advanced out of a regional. Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999, Georgia has made the College World Series in each of its four times advancing out of the Regionals.
UGA NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 1953, 1954, 1987, 1990, 1992, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2018, 2019, 2022
NCAA Regional Host: 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2018, 2019
NCAA Regional Champions: 1987 (Northeast Regional – Atlanta, Ga.), 1990 (Northeast Regional – Waterbury, CT), 2001 (Athens), 2004 (Athens), 2006 (Athens), 2008 (Athens)
College World Series Appearances: 1987, 1990, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008
College World Series Runner-Up: 2008
NCAA Tournament Champions: 1990
Georgia moved up into the top-15 of all the major rankings this week with a 4-0 week that saw a sweep of Vanderbilt and a midweek win over Kennesaw State. UGA comes in as high as No. 11 (Perfect Game) while the USA TODAY Coaches poll lists the Bulldogs at No. 12. Baseball America and D1Baseball have them at No. 14 and 15 respectively.
Less than three weeks away from the announcement of the bracket, 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).
