Latest bracket projections show split opinion in Georgia as national seed

The latest NCAA Tournament bracket projections are out for College Baseball, and ahead of the final week of the regular season, there’s little doubt about Georgia and its chances to host a regional in Athens.

Winners of eight in a row including a pair of sweeps over Vanderbilt and South Carolina, the Bulldogs are playing their best baseball of the season. To some, it’s the best baseball in the country right now, and as a result, we’ve seen Wes Johnson’s team jump into the top-10 of all the polls. On Wednesday, both Baseball America and D1Baseball projected the Bulldogs to be opening their attempt to make it to Omaha in Athens with three teams coming to the Classic City – all trying to advance.

D1Baseball: Georgia (No. 7 national seed), NC State, UCF, Austin Peay – Super Regional matched with Oklahoma (No. 10 national seed)
Baseball America: Georgia (No. 10 national seed), Southern Miss, Georgia Tech, Bryant – Super Regional matched with Florida State (No. 7 national seed)

The two projections do show one big difference: the Bulldogs being a top-8 seed in one but not the other. Getting inside the top-8 would allow Georgia to host a Super Regional at Foley Field as well should it advance, something the Dawgs haven’t done since 2008 when they made a run to the College World Series.

Georgia last hosted regionals in 2019, a second straight opportunity to do so and sixth in program history. The Bulldogs fell in both 2018 and 2019 against ACC competition – Duke the first year and Florida State the second. However, in each of the four previous times hosting, Georgia advanced out of the regional (2001, 2004, 2006 and 2008).

Weekly Awards

Georgia freshman Tre Phelps was named SEC Player of the Week on Monday for his impressive series against South Carolina. The product of Georgia Premier Academy in Kennesaw, Ga. hit four home runs in UGA’s three wins over the Gamecocks including two during a 14-10 primetime victory on Thursday.

Phelps’ four home runs was most in the league for the weekend, giving him nine on the season and six since returning from a knee injury eight games ago. He also tallied an SEC-best 19 total bases, nine RBI and eight runs scored, posting a 1.357 slugging percentage while going 6-for-14 (.429) at the dish. On the season, Phelps is hitting .385 – .362 in SEC play – and has knocked in 32 runs for the Bulldogs.

“That guy is real, man. He has good at bats, he doesn’t chase, he works so hard,” Georgia head coach Wes Johnson said about Phelps recently. “He’s jumped in and we’ve worked really hard on the strike zone with him. I think he’s doing a phenomenal job – you look at his chase rate and it’s extremely low. You’ve got to get him out in the strike zone and when they’re coming in there, he’s getting a barrel on them … He’s seeing the ball really well right now, and he works really hard, brings a lot of energy to the field every day.”

“He’s a stud. He’s a big part of the future for this program, and I’m really excited to see it,” added Charlie Condon. “He’s a great kid, and he’s going to be runnin’ Athens here in a couple of years.”

Phelps joins Condon, Corey Collins and Slate Alford in earning SEC Player of the Week honors this season. Last week, Leighton Finley was named SEC Pitcher of the Week.

What’s Next

Georgia, 38-12 overall with a 16-11 mark in SEC play, hosts arch rival Florida this weekend for the final regular season series. The Gators, who finished runner-up to LSU last season, find themselves on the wrong side of the bubble right now, currently sitting at 11-16 in SEC play. Traditionally, SEC teams have needed 13 wins in conference play to get in as an at-large, meaning Jac Caglianone and company are going to be searching for at least two in Athens.

First pitch between the Bulldogs and Gators is set for 6:00 p.m. ET on Thursday night. Games follow on Friday (6:00 p.m. ET) and Saturday (2:00 p.m. ET), all airing on SEC Network+. Expected pitching matchups are as follows: (THURS) RHP Kolten Smith (UGA) vs. LHP Pierce Coppola (UF), (FRI) RHP Leighton Finley vs. RHP Liam Peterson (UF), (SAT) TBA (UGA) vs. LHP Lac Caglianone (UF).