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Georgia baseball has already shown its supremacy in the SEC this season.
Regular season champions.
Conference tournament champions.
Winning all five league road series and nine of 10 series overall.
Taking out Mississippi State in two high-scoring games in a dramatic super regional series.
None of which will matter for Georgia in its quest to win a national championship.
The Bulldogs must get through a four-team, all-SEC bracket to get a shot the reach the finals at the College World Series.
Those other three SEC teams were not on Georgia’s schedule this season and didn’t go up against them in Hoover, Ala., on the way to the program’s first SEC Tournament title ever.
The No. 3 seed Bulldogs get No. 6 seed Texas Saturday at 8 p.m. in Omaha and then will play either Alabama or Oklahoma on Monday in one double-elimination bracket in the eight-team CWS.
“I think it gives us confidence and belief in ourselves that we’ve done this all year,” shortstop Kolby Branch said. “We won the SEC outright. We have confidence in this league. It’s the best competition. We’ve done tough and difficult things all year. We’ve gone on the road to five of arguably the hardest places to play in college baseball. We won every series there and won nine out of 10 series (overall). We’re incredibly confident. Confident, not cocky.”
Ole Miss, a team Georgia beat two out of three in Oxford this season, is in the other four-team bracket that will play the winner of the SEC battle royale bracket in the final series.
So that’s a CWS record of five teams from the same conference.
Georgia (51-12) is in the bracket with the SEC’s second place team Texas (45-13), fourth place Alabama (42-19). and Oklahoma (38-22) which finished 11th with a 14-16 record.
“We haven’t played any of the teams on our side of the bracket,” Georgia pitcher Justin Byrd said. “That’s going to be tough. Just like any other game, go out and just have confidence in believe in yourself.”
Georgia last season lost all three games at Texas, two of three at Alabama and won two of three at home against Oklahoma before a loss at the SEC Tournament.
“You know their style,” coach Wes Johnson said. “You know how they all coach. You know their tendencies just like they know ours and that’s what you’ll coach off of.”
Georgia is 28-7 against SEC teams this season including 6-0 against Mississippi State.
“We all know how hard it is to get to Omaha,” Mississippi State coach Brian O’Connor, who made the College Word Series seven times at Virginia and won the national title in 2015, said after Georgia ended his team’s season “The reason you go to Omaha is not to get there, it’s to compete for a national championship. That team in the other dugout (Georgia) is absolutely capable of winning the national championship. One of the best lineups in my coaching career that I’ve coached against.”
Texas was picked second in the SEC in the preseason, the only team in the league remaining that was projected to finish in the top half.
Georgia was ninth, Ole Miss 10th, Alabama 12th and Oklahoma 14th.
“It’s almost like a new mini-season, a new regional and then you win that, you go to a super regional,” Branch said. “That’s kind of the mindset you have to take. You’re going all out to go win each game one by one.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia dominated SEC foes this season. More are waiting in Omaha.
Continue reading...
Regular season champions.
Conference tournament champions.
Winning all five league road series and nine of 10 series overall.
Taking out Mississippi State in two high-scoring games in a dramatic super regional series.
None of which will matter for Georgia in its quest to win a national championship.
The Bulldogs must get through a four-team, all-SEC bracket to get a shot the reach the finals at the College World Series.
Those other three SEC teams were not on Georgia’s schedule this season and didn’t go up against them in Hoover, Ala., on the way to the program’s first SEC Tournament title ever.
The No. 3 seed Bulldogs get No. 6 seed Texas Saturday at 8 p.m. in Omaha and then will play either Alabama or Oklahoma on Monday in one double-elimination bracket in the eight-team CWS.
“I think it gives us confidence and belief in ourselves that we’ve done this all year,” shortstop Kolby Branch said. “We won the SEC outright. We have confidence in this league. It’s the best competition. We’ve done tough and difficult things all year. We’ve gone on the road to five of arguably the hardest places to play in college baseball. We won every series there and won nine out of 10 series (overall). We’re incredibly confident. Confident, not cocky.”
Ole Miss, a team Georgia beat two out of three in Oxford this season, is in the other four-team bracket that will play the winner of the SEC battle royale bracket in the final series.
So that’s a CWS record of five teams from the same conference.
Georgia (51-12) is in the bracket with the SEC’s second place team Texas (45-13), fourth place Alabama (42-19). and Oklahoma (38-22) which finished 11th with a 14-16 record.
“We haven’t played any of the teams on our side of the bracket,” Georgia pitcher Justin Byrd said. “That’s going to be tough. Just like any other game, go out and just have confidence in believe in yourself.”
Georgia last season lost all three games at Texas, two of three at Alabama and won two of three at home against Oklahoma before a loss at the SEC Tournament.
“You know their style,” coach Wes Johnson said. “You know how they all coach. You know their tendencies just like they know ours and that’s what you’ll coach off of.”
Georgia is 28-7 against SEC teams this season including 6-0 against Mississippi State.
“We all know how hard it is to get to Omaha,” Mississippi State coach Brian O’Connor, who made the College Word Series seven times at Virginia and won the national title in 2015, said after Georgia ended his team’s season “The reason you go to Omaha is not to get there, it’s to compete for a national championship. That team in the other dugout (Georgia) is absolutely capable of winning the national championship. One of the best lineups in my coaching career that I’ve coached against.”
Texas was picked second in the SEC in the preseason, the only team in the league remaining that was projected to finish in the top half.
Georgia was ninth, Ole Miss 10th, Alabama 12th and Oklahoma 14th.
“It’s almost like a new mini-season, a new regional and then you win that, you go to a super regional,” Branch said. “That’s kind of the mindset you have to take. You’re going all out to go win each game one by one.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia dominated SEC foes this season. More are waiting in Omaha.
Continue reading...
