Georgia Baseball: Bulldogs sign assistant coaches, add transfers
Georgia Baseball has been in the news as of late. The Bulldogs hired their new head coach Wes Johnson earlier this month. He held his introductory press conference before headed back to Baton Rouge to finish the season at LSU as the Tigers’ pitching coach. All the while, Johnson said he’s been hard at work for his new gig, and that has shown so far this week.
On Thursday, D1Baseball reported that Johnson had hired Kentucky assistant Will Coggin to act as recruiting coordinator while bringing on volunteer assistant Brock Bennett in a full-time, paid role. Then, on Saturday, Georgia redshirt freshman slugger Charlie Condon announced that he was set to stay in Athens for another year as opposed to the widely rumored flirting with the transfer portal.
Condon earned SEC Freshman of the Year honors as he won the team’s triple crown, hitting .386 with 25 home runs and 67 RBI. He’s been invited to Cary, N.C. for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team’s summer training camp.
To round things out, a pair of players announced their intentions to transfer to Georgia: Mississippi State infielder Slate Alford and Western Kentucky outfielder Lukas Farris.
Both Coggin and Bennett played in the SEC, Coggin at Mississippi State (2007-2008) and Bennett at Alabama (2007-2011). The former of them, got his start in coaching as a student assistant at Mississippi State in 2009 before returning to Starkville in 2015. He spent three seasons there, overlapping in part with Wes Johnson to hep the Bulldogs win the SEC and earn a national seed in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
As for Bennett, he’s acted as volunteer assistant in Athens since 2019, playing his part as the team’s first base coach. He will stay on staff while Scott Stricklin’s other assistants – Sean Kinney and Scott Daeley – move on elsewhere.
As for the players that announced their intentions to suit up for Georgia next season, Alford started 40 games for Mississippi State, hitting .248 with nine home runs and 36 RBI. He finished the season strong with multiple RBI in four of the last five – all against teams that made the NCAA Tournament.
Alford spent two seasons in Starkville and has two years of eligibility remaining. Meanwhile, Farris spent just one season at Western Kentucky, hitting .291 with 50 starts (55 games played). Farris totaled 53 hits, 37 runs scored, 13 home runs and 43 RBI with a slugging percentage of .544. A native of Acworth, Ga., Farris will have three seasons of eligibility left.
Georgia already had a pair of players committed out of the transfer portal prior to Johnson’s arrival. Penn pitcher Brian Zedlin and Columbia catcher Weston Eberly both had done so before the season and are expected to stay committed to Georgia as graduate students.
Zedlin made nine appearances for Penn on the season including a pair in their NCAA Tournament appearance at Auburn. He had an ERA of 3.74 with 21 strikeouts to just 12 walks. Meanwhile, Eberly started 43 games for Columbia hitting .309 with 41 RBI and nine home runs. He also reached base on a walk 30 times.
Of course, the MLB Draft will largely determine what Georgia’s roster looks like for next season. Some Bulldogs have entered the transfer portal while others await to see if their name gets called to turn pro. The MLB Draft is set for July 9-11 with players making their decisions and signing contracts or returning to college shortly after.
