When it’s conference tournament-time in college baseball, the goals for teams with their postseason fate in good hands are complex. Sure, you want to play well in those few days and be in a good place going into regionals. But a conference tournament matters little in comparison to the weight held by regionals, super regionals, and the College World Series.
You want to play well, and anything else is gravy.
The Diamond Dawgs may as well be riding the gravy train.
For the first time in program history, Georgia has won an SEC Tournament title with Sunday afternoon’s 11-1 win by the fourth-ranked Dawgs over tenth-ranked Arkansas 11-1.
Georgia used a whole-staff approach to hold down the Razorbacks on Sunday, starting with Paul Farley’s four scoreless innings followed by work from Zach Brown, Caleb Jameson, and Jordan Stephens. At the plate, a four-run on five-hit outburst was led by Rylan Lujo, Brennan Hudson ripping RBI doubles and Jack Acrahome blasting a two-run homer.
Georgia made it to Sunday with a furious rally the day before, coming back from being down 6-0 to beat Florida 8-7. The Bulldogs pushed three runs across in the fourth, one in the fifth, and two more in the seventh and eighth to complete the comeback.
Georgia opened play in Hoover with a 5-3 win against Mississippi State on Thursday.
The Dawgs now await Monday’s NCAA Regionals announcement, following a weekend that should solidify their standing as a national seed. That should help Georgia’s draw going to a place where they have been snakebit in recent seasons.
No, this past weekend is no reason to make your reservation for a steak dinner at The Drover in Omaha yet, but it does not hurt any reason to dwell on that possibility even more.
Go Dawgs!
