THOMBS: Encouraging You to Give Georgia Baseball a Try

Football season comes to a close on Sunday with the Super Bowl, and while Georgia fans can continue to celebrate their National Championship, others might be ready to move on to the next sport.

The Winter Olympics are nice, but that won’t last much longer. Basketball and hockey seasons are in full swing, but Georgia fans are definitely counting down the days until they can forget about the hardwood – that is if they haven’t already. After all, the Atlanta Hawks are below .500, the Hoop Hounds are even further below .500 and hockey, well, there aren’t many options for teams nearby – unless of course you are a supporter of UGA’s No. 3 ranked club hockey team.

In a normal year, pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training would be the talk of the town, especially coming off of a Braves World Series win. However, with the ongoing MLB lockout, you can put that on pause. So, let me suggest an alternative for your baseball fix. Rather than anxiously awaiting an alert on Freddie Freeman’s contract, I suggest you give Georgia Baseball a try.

The Diamond Dawgs get their season underway a week from today at Foley Field, taking on Albany at 2:00 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network+. Entering 2022 ranked anywhere from No. 14 to No. 22 in preseason polls, Scott Stricklin’s group is expected to be exciting. Georgia was picked third in the Eastern Division behind Vanderbilt and Florida in the SEC Coaches Poll, but did receive two votes of confidence for the Bulldogs as the top team in the division. Baseball America even predicts an all Peach State regional with Georgia Tech, Georgia Southern and Mercer to go down in Athens when the time comes.

Obviously preseason polls and projections only mean so much. It’s all about how you perform on the field once you step between the white lines. Georgia knows that as well as anybody, earning regional host status in 2018 and 2019 but failing to make it out either time. Here’s a couple of things I can tell you though…

Georgia Has Exciting Players

Jonathan Cannon and Jaden Woods were both selected to the Preseason All-SEC Second Team with Cannon as a starting pitcher and Woods as a reliever.

Cannon chose to return to Athens for his junior season, passing on his ability to enter the draft as a draft eligible sophomore, and will likely hold down Georgia’s spot in the starting rotation as the ace. He was a Preseason All-American last year before missing the first part of the season recovering from mono. He slowly worked his way back as the Bulldogs took on tough competition, earning both SEC and National Pitcher of the Week honors for his performance in a win on the road over No. 1 Vanderbilt. Cannon helped Georgia beat No. 7 Florida and No. 11 Ole Miss to avoid being swept, ending his season with a 4-2 mark and 3.98 ERA in 13 appearances including 12 starts.

Meanwhile, Woods was just a freshman last year but was thrust into a big role. Woods made 17 appearances with four starts, posting a 4-1 mark with one save and a 4.58 ERA in 53 innings. He registered five strikeouts in three different relief outings and a career-high seven in a start against North Florida. Signature moments for the freshman including a weekend series with Kentucky where Woods got the final out of his first career save against Kentucky in a win over the Wildcats and came back to throw 2.1 scoreless innings in another victory, a four-inning performance allowing just one run with three strikeouts to earn his first career win and avoid a sweep at Texas A&M as well as providing four scoreless inning of relief with three strikeouts in Georgia’s win over top-ranked Arkansas. Woods was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team by the coaches and a Second-Team Freshman All-American by Perfect Game/Rawlings.

The pair of pitchers aren’t the only ones back though. So too is the team leader in batting average and home runs Connor Tate, as well as RBI leader and SEC All-Freshman Team member Corey Collins. Connor’s brother Cole is also back, along with the likes of experience contributors Buddy Floyd, Shane Marshall, Randon Jernigan Nolan Crisp, Chaney Rogers, Garret Blaylock, Josh McAllister, Jack Gowen, Michael Polk and Ben Anderson and exciting young stars Will Pearson, Garrett Spikes, Parks Harbor, Fernando Gonzalez, Liam Sullivan, Luke Wagner and Hank Bearden. Florida transfer Cory Acton and Mississippi State transfer Davis Rokose join the Bulldogs alongside JUCO transfer Dylan Ross, all three of whom have high ceilings.

SEC Is Competitive

Six different teams received votes in the SEC Baseball Preseason Coaches Poll to win the league. Within the two division structure, seven teams – also known as half the league – received votes to win their division. That says a lot about the league in its current standing. Meanwhile, the SEC is on a historic tear. Last year’s College World Series featured three teams from the SEC, including two that squared off for the CWS Finals. In the last 10 College World Series played, 10 different programs from the conference have made it to Omaha (Arkansas (x4), Auburn, Florida (x6), LSU (x3), Mississippi State (x4), Ole Miss, South Carolina (x2), Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt (x5)). Needless to say, the Road to Omaha typically runs through the southeast.

Atmosphere Is Great

Finally, if you aren’t sold already, the atmosphere of College Baseball is great. Picture tailgating for an SEC Football game and throwing that inside of a baseball stadium and that’s essentially what you’ve got. The crowds caught people’s attention last spring coming out of a subdued football season. From the big stadiums like Dudy Noble Field in Starkville, Miss. or Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. to the unique traditions like beer showers at Ole Miss or the Green House and Kudzu Hill at Georgia, atmospheres in College Baseball are incredible. Now, imagine Foley Field selling alcohol like they announced on Friday, and the sky is the limit for what could be possible in 2022.

So come on out. I encourage you to give it a try. Whether that’s on Opening Weekend against Albany or you want to wait for a little bit nicer weather in March, April and May, Foley Field will be waiting with a schedule that features Georgia hosting several of the top teams in the country. You won’t want to miss it!