Georgia Baseball jumps into top 25, Corey Collins wins player of the week
Georgia Baseball had a nice bounce back week, and the Bulldogs have turned that in to their first appearance in Baseball America’s rankings since 2022. UGA comes in at No. 24, one of 12 SEC teams to crack the top 25 with the only ones not ranked being Auburn and Missouri. Georgia also comes in at No. 24 according to the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
Wes Johnson’s squad is off to a 21-4 start to the season, sweeping Alabama over the weekend to get back to .500 in SEC play. Helping make the dominant weekend possible was SEC Player of the Week Corey Collins. The league’s other recognized players included Hagen Smith (Arkansas), Justin Lamkin (Texas A&M) and Tyler Pitzer (South Carolina).
The 6-foot-3, 236-pound senior tallied an SEC-best 29 total bases with six home runs on the week. He hit a school-record tying three in the midweek win over Wofford including a leadoff shot, one of three times he started the game off with a long ball. On the day, Collins had a carer-high 8 RBI while on the week, he was able to bring home 13 runs for the Bulldogs.
After recording just one hit in his first eight games, Collins has 10 home runs in his last nine. He has multiple home runs in four separate games, now hitting .425 on the season with 23 RBI, a 1.175 slugging percentage and a .615 on base percentage.
Collins is the third different Georgia player to be recognized by the league with a weekly award, joining Slate Alford and Charlie Condon, who has done so twice. Condon leads the nation with 17 home runs while as a team, the Bulldogs have 74 in total.
Georgia plays host to Mercer this week at Foley Field on Tuesday with first pitch scheduled for 5:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network+. Then, the Bulldogs will head up to Knoxville and take on Tennessee over the weekend. The Volunteers come in as high as No. 5 in the nation after a series victory over Ole Miss.
