Georgia Baseball gets fall ball underway with new look, excitement
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia Baseball began fall ball on Friday. While the Diamond Dawgs certainly aren’t the focus when it comes to sports in the Classic City this time of year, head coach Wes Johnson knows the opportunity that’s ahead for him and his team. With 35 practices in 45 days, Johnson understands that the next few weeks offer a chance to establish an identity and begin figuring out how all the pieces of the puzzle come together in his first season on the job.
“It’s been fun. It’s been a challenge,” Johnson said about the overhaul of Georgia’s program this offseason. “You start to look at different dynamics. It’s one thing to have new players, but then you think about it and it’s new players from other programs. One of the big things I’ve really been hammering is, ‘We’ve got to establish a normal.’ They’ve had a normal at other programs, but how do we do things? That’s been good, it’s been fun, it’s been a challenge, but that’s what you have to do to get your locker room right.”
Georgia landed 17 players out of the transfer portal this offseason. Add in 14 true freshmen, and 31 of the 52 players on the roster this fall played their baseball somewhere other than Athens last spring.
Many of those newcomers are going to be counted on as contributors this season. After all, Johnson said that he and his staff prioritized experience in the transfer portal along with analytics. That means that not only have they played at their previous stops, but they’ve also played well at their previous stops.
Transfer Portal Highlights
- Outfielder Dillon Carter played in 36 games and started 31 for a Texas Tech team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2023. He had over 100 career starts (122) in four years in Lubbock with the Red Raiders, advancing to the postseason in each of the last three seasons.
- Clayton Chadwick of Sam Houston State also played in the NCAA Tournament this past spring, doing so in front of Johnson at the Baton Rouge Regional. He too brings tons of experience in the outfield to Athens with nearly 150 starts (147) to his name.
- Infielder Kolby Branch was tabbed as a Freshman All-American at Baylor this past season by Collegiate Baseball. Branch started all 55 games at shortstop and captured the team’s Triple Crown.
- John Marant comes from the junior college ranks where he made the NJCAAA JUCO College World Series as a freshman and was named a NJCAA D1 First Team All-American as a designated hitter as a sophomore. He led College of Central Florida in batting average (.434), runs (72) and doubles (17) while hitting 15 home runs with 70 RBI.
- Spending the last two seasons at Campbell where the Camels were one of the biggest stories in all of College Baseball, outfielder Logan Jordan started 104 of the 109 games he appeared in. Jordan hit earned All-Big South honors in each of his two seasons, hitting 12 home runs with 52 RBI both years.
- Paul Toetz put up numbers in the Big Ten at each of his two previous schools. He spent 2020 (redshirt) and 2021 at Indiana where, like his infield partner Branch, he earned Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American honors. Then, he transferred across the state to Purdue where he was named All-Big Ten and became the first Boilermaker to capture the Triple Crown since 2015. Toetz has 146 career starts in three seasons.
- Slate Alford is the lone transfer from the SEC level. He spent the past two seasons at Mississippi State appearing in 45 contests with 40 starts at third base for the Bulldogs.
The stats speak for themselves, and Johnson and his staff are going to have some tough decisions ahead of them. However, there’s no arguing that they accomplished what they wanted in the portal.
“We wanted lineup flexibility,” Johnson said. “A lot of teams in our league have a really good right hander with a really good slider, and that gets a lot of good right handed hitters out, so you better have enough left handed bats in there for when you face that guy to be able to attack that guy and give your team a chance. And vice versa … Having that lineup flexibility is one thing, but the other thing that I think we pulled off is I think we have some defensive flexibility as well.”
“Guys with experience and who have had success at a high level carry a different kind of confidence. The more you’re confident, that becomes contagious,” he added. “That’s what we’re hoping for, and that’s what we’re seeing with some of those guys. You’re already seeing some of the guys that were here last year feed off of that. That’s something you have to keep going because, as you know, it’s baseball. You’re going to have a bad game, a bad week. Can we stay positive and keep that momentum going?”
Johnson has pitching in his background, and of course Georgia added some names on that front too. Brandt Pancer (RHP) made 32 appearances including one start this past season on a Stanford team that advanced to the College World Series in each of his three seasons. He returns to his home state where he attended North Gwinnett (Suwanee, Ga.) High School. Brian Zeldin (Penn, RHP) also pitched in the NCAA Tournament, helping the Quakers advance out of the Auburn Regional. He too is back in his home state, playing prep ball at Pace Academy (Atlanta, Ga.).
Zach Harris (RHP) didn’t have to travel too far from Georgia Southern where he made 19 appearances including seven starts for the Eagles last season while Charleston Southern’s Daniel Padysak (RHP) might be the most travelled person on the team given that he’s from the Czech Republic and played for the national team in the World Baseball Classic. Padysak made 16 appearances with two starts last season at the collegiate level but started for the Czech Republic against China in the WBC, allowing no hits in four scoreless frames on the way to his country’s first win in tournament history.
“We had a scrimmage yesterday, and it was good to see a lot of these new players and how they’re going to react when the lines are painted and they’re playing against live pitching in a game setting,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but there were a lot of positives.”
“This weekend will be huge just seeing them against our hitters,” he added on the pitchers. “I think we’re extremely offensive … We’re learning a ton.”
Of course the team isn’t all newcomers on the Georgia roster. The Bulldogs bring back National Freshman of the Year and All-American Charlie Condon (1B/OF) after he had one of the best seasons in school history. Condon captured the team’s Triple Crown hitting .386 with 25 home runs and 67 RBI, leading the SEC in slugging percentage (.800) and trailing only the No. 2 overall pick Dylan Crews (LSU) in batting average.
Corey Collins (C/OF) and Fernando Gonzalez (C) give Georgia experience behind the plate while guys like Sebastian Murillo (INF), Josh Stinson (OF), Garrett Spikes (OF), Dwight Allen (OF), Jarvis Evans (LHP), Will Pearson (RHP), Leighton Finley (RHP), Kolten Smith (RHP), Coleman Willis (RHP), Charlie Goldstein (LHP) and Chandler Marsh (RHP) among others are likely to be in the thick of things when Johnson is determining his lineups and rotations.
“I come in and I have no preconceived notions. I told them that day one,” Johnson said. “I don’t care what your stats were last year, I don’t care what you’ve done, what you haven’t done. Really you’ve got a fresh start with me, and I think that has given a few guys a jolt of energy and a second life. They’ve come out and they’ve shown some things. They’re going to have to continue to progress.”
“As the goal should be every day, if we have an individual development plan which these guys do, our goal is to get better at that every single day,” he added. “You know, I get asked a lot about winning and this and that, for me winning is getting your players better every day. We had a young man throwing the ball harder than he’s ever thrown it yesterday, and he was extremely excited. It’s like I told him, ‘Hey, that’s yesterday’s newspaper. If we’re satisfied there, we’re in trouble. We’ve got to continue to get better.’ It doesn’t mean he’s going to continue to throw harder, but maybe his slider gets better, his command gets better, he controls the running game better. For us, it is an every single day thing to stay consistent and continue to get better.”
Georgia has a pair of fall contests on the schedule. First is the annual matchup against Florida in Jacksonville on the Friday (October 27th, 6:30 p.m. ET) before the football game. That’ll be a 10-inning exhibition. Then, a little over a week later, is a home date against Kennesaw State on Sunday, November 5th at Foley Field starting at noon ET to conclude fall ball.
