Tre Phelps earns SEC weekly honors after stellar series at South Carolina

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.

The Bulldogs, winners of eight in a row dating back to the series finale against Texas A&M, swept South Carolina on the road over the weekend and find themselves in the top-10 of the polls per D1Baseball (No. 9), Baseball America (No. 6), Perfect Game (No. 5) and USA TODAY (No. 8).

Over the course of SEC play, Georgia has played a tough schedule that featured five road series against teams ranked at the time of the series. Tennessee finds itself atop all the polls while Kentucky and Texas A&M aren’t far behind. Mississippi State dropped its series to Arkansas, but the Bulldogs are still in the rankings. South Carolina is split with D1Baseball and USA TODAY still including the Gamecocks while Baseball America and Perfect Game dropped them out.

Alabama, who Georgia swept earlier in the season, makes its way back into the rankings, and Clemson, who Georgia took a thrilling midweek contest from at Foley Field, is still a consensus top-10 team. Ole Miss is surging while Vanderbilt is slipping. Missouri is the only SEC team Georgia has played so far this season that’s not in the NCAA Tournament picture.

About the Dawgs…

Baseball America: The Bulldogs rolled to a sweep at South Carolina, extending their winning streak to eight games. Georgia scored 39 runs on the weekend and bashed 11 home runs—though only one of those was by Charlie Condon, who on Thursday set the 21st century single-season home run record with his 34th home run of the year. Georgia’s winning streak has seen it surge into third place in the SEC ahead of this week’s rivalry series against Florida.

The Athletic: No team is playing better than Georgia. The Bulldogs have swept consecutive series against Vanderbilt (home) and South Carolina (road) by an average score of 12-5. Georgia is 38-12 overall and 16-11 in the SEC and, with an RPI that has climbed to No. 2, is highly likely to be a top-eight seed. Charlie Condon headlines one of the nation’s top offenses, but senior leadoff hitter Corey Collins is also a huge part of this team’s success. Collins is hitting .367 with 16 home runs and 49 RBIs, and he leads the nation with a .598 on-base percentage — a very good thing when you bat one spot in front of Condon.

What’s Next?

Georgia, 38-12 overall with a 16-11 mark in SEC play, has one regular season series remaining, taking on Florida at Foley Field this coming weekend. The Gators dropped two of three to Kentucky over the weekend, going into extra innings with the Wildcats in both losses. At 11-16 in the SEC, the reigning national runner up has some work to do if it wants to have another shot at a run to Omaha. Florida is led by superstar Jac Caglianone, setting up what should be a fun series to watch with the battles between him and Condon – who passed Caglianone’s single-season home run record over the weekend.

First pitch between the Bulldogs and Gators is set for 6:00 p.m. ET on both Thursday and Friday before a Saturday 2:00 p.m. start time. All three games can be streamed on SEC Network+.