Why Georgia and Georgia Tech are primed for College World Series runs

Recent history would suggest more heartbreak has been cleared for landing for Georgia’s and Georgia Tech’s baseball teams.

But this looks and feels different.

The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets are not merely among the top three national seeds in the NCAA Tournament, revealed Monday with the announcement of the 64-team bracket. And it’s not only that they’ve already achieved history with both winning their respective league’s regular-season and tournament titles.

Georgia and Georgia Tech, which both begin regional play Friday at their home stadiums, seem ready for this moment in a way they haven’t in previous seasons.

The possibility of an extreme rarity — both teams making it to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, accomplished only once, in 2006 — is entirely within reach.

We didn’t get it in the football season, when both programs made it into November with clear paths to make the College Football Playoff, only for the Jackets to falter. But a Midwestern staging of “Clean Old-Fashioned Hate” in mid-June should not surprise anyone.

Here’s why:

Tech (48-9) has literally been built for the postseason. At a Monday news conference after the Jackets were awarded the No. 2 national seed, first-year coach James Ramsey made a compelling presentation as to how.

Starting from when he was an assistant coach to Danny Hall for the previous seven seasons, Ramsey has tried to unlock the factors that most helped teams reach Omaha. Compiling data in spreadsheets, he has considered myriad variables such as the scheduling of the opening games in the regional, nonconference schedule strength, the three-pitcher weekend starting rotation, the top eight pitchers on the staff, lineups built for power or contact and defensive metrics, among other possibilities.

Ramsey has even studied major league teams in their postseason, looking for secrets of how teams win in short series or single-elimination games, circumstances that approximate the pressure conditions of the NCAA Tournament.

“It has consumed everything that you do when you’re trying to build a program,” Ramsey said.

It has guided his construction of a pitching staff that is versatile, a roster with an athletic defense that is strong up the middle with two of the best players in the country at catcher (Vahn Lackey) and center field (Drew Burress) and first-team All-ACC selections at second base (Jarren Advincula) and shortstop (Carson Kerce) and a lineup that can slug but also work counts for walks.

The powerhouse Jackets lead Division I in batting average, on-base percentage and runs per game and are second in walks and fourth in home runs.

“I love this team,” Ramsey said. “And obviously love them as people, but I love the way it’s constructed.”

Beyond a roster with skill sets for the postseason, though, is the spirit that permeates the Jackets’ clubhouse. Tech has been driven by the mantra of “Leave no doubt” after falling in the regional round last year in part because it had failed to earn a home advantage.

“The thing that this team’s going to be known as, with all the superstars and stuff, it’s been about doing the little things and just playing hard,” Ramsey said.

In Athens, third-seeded Georgia (46-12) has a contender to match. The Bulldogs boast the SEC’s player of the year in catcher Dan Jackson, one of three first-team all-conference selections along with third baseman Tre Phelps and center fielder Rylan Lujo.

They have an offense that produces on par with Tech — first in home runs per game in Division I, second in slugging percentage and fourth in batting average, on-base percentage and runs per game. In the SEC Tournament championship game, they pummeled NCAA-bound Arkansas in a game decided by run-rule, a show of UGA’s pitching depth and hitting might.

They are strong in the bullpen, another department that’s critical in the postseason. The foursome of Caden Aoki, Matt Scott, Justin Byrd and Paul Farley, who have covered 43% of the team’s innings, have a combined 11.0/3.5 strikeout/walk ratio per nine innings.

And, like its archrival, Georgia is driven by past failures, namely its inability to get to Omaha in each of coach Wes Johnson’s first two seasons.

After last season, Phelps and shortstop Kolby Branch were draft-eligible but decided together to return to complete unfinished business. Longtime UGA baseball voice Jeff Dantzler compared the effect to when Georgia running backs Sony Michel and Nick Chubb decided after the 2016 season to delay NFL entry and play one more year, setting the stage for UGA’s breakthrough 2017 season.

“I feel like this team’s got what it takes to get (to Omaha),” Dantzler said Monday.