With SEC play starting, 'it's time for the real Dawgs to come out'

Georgia Baseball begins SEC play this weekend, and it’s quite the challenge right out of the gate. The defending national champion Mississippi State Bulldogs are in Athens for a three-game series and easily one of Georgia’s toughest tests to date. Head coach Scott Stricklin and his team aren’t going to back down from that challenge though.

“Opening SEC weekend is exciting in and of itself, but to bring in Mississippi State, the team that won it all last year, to Athens, it’s exciting,” Stricklin said. “It’s exciting for our players, it’s exciting for our fans, it’s exciting for our coaches. We’re all ready for the weekend. They’ll be ready too. They’re really talented, and I know it should be a really good series.”

“I think we’re ready. You never know until you know, he added. “I always use the analogy of the volume being turned up. The volume’s going to be turned up this weekend. The crowds are bigger, the talent level in the other dugout is a little bit better, it means a little bit more because it not only goes in the overall but also the SEC standings. It means a lot, but I think our guys are ready.”

Georgia enters the weekend on a five-game winning streak. The Bulldogs, 14-3 on the year, dropped two of three in their series against Georgia Tech. Then, after winning the Sunday finale to regain a little bit of momentum, they split things in the midweek with Georgia Southern. A sweep over Lipscomb and a dominant 15-3 win versus USC-Upstate on Tuesday bring them to where they are today. However, things are obviously different now with the competition being upped a notch, and Stricklin is happy with the way his team has improved up to this point.

“We’ve had some challenges, we’ve had some ups and downs and some adversity, but we’re playing better baseball right now,” Stricklin said. “We’ve gotten better offensively over these last five or six games. We’ve started to execute a little bit better at getting runners in from third base, hitting with the bases loaded. We got a few hits on Tuesday with the bases loaded. I think getting the big hit is the one thing we were missing, and we did get a couple of those on Tuesday. We’ve had a lot of different guys go out there and do it on the found. Defensively I think we’ve sured things up here lately. I’m pleased with the progression. You don’t want to peak too early. I think we’ve gotten better. I think we’re playing good baseball. I don’t think it’s our best baseball yet, but I think we’re playing really good baseball and I hope the best is yet to come.”

With that increase in competition comes the tendency to try and do more than what’s necessary. But, given the experience that Georgia has under its belt, both from this year and returning from previous seasons, the Bulldogs hope to be able to fall back on that as a calming presence.

“The biggest thing we’ve preached is, ‘We don’t need to do anything different. We just need to play Georgia Baseball,'” Josh McAllister said. “After Tuesday’s win, they kind of reminded us that last year when we played Tennessee, everyone kind of sped up and it just felt different playing SEC. But it shouldn’t. Coach Daly, Coach Strick have been great about, ‘Hey, stay calm. It’s just another game. It’s just another series and another opportunity for us to go out there and win three games.'”

“Feeling comfortable is the biggest thing, especially in the box or on the mound or in the field,” he continued. “I feel like having older guys allows you to take some of those situations that are bad – a hit by pitch, a passed ball, an error – and try to minimize them. I think having older guys that have been there before to help calm everybody down will help us heavily.”

Georgia will be without starting pitcher Liam Sullivan this weekend as he is out of the rotation due to arm soreness. The Bulldogs have already lost Dylan Ross and Will Childers for the season, so the extra precaution with Sullivan makes sense. They hope to have him back next weekend for Kentucky. That means that Luke Wagner will get the Saturday start (2:00 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) instead with Jonathan Cannon on Friday (7:00 p.m. ET, SEC Network) and Garrett Brown on Sunday (12:00 p.m. ET, SEC Network).

“This weekend gives us a chance to put our names on the map,” McAllister said about the opportunity awaiting this weekend. “State had their run, but it’s time for the real Dawgs to come out, the University of Georgia. We’ve got a lot of home grown kids on this team, so representing the state of Georgia, the Georgia athletic department and the Georgia baseball team. I’m ready to go, and I think this team is ready to go.”