In familiar battle of Bulldogs, Georgia’s biggest advantage is home

They say you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, but in this battle of Bulldogs, the ones from Athens might have one more trick up their sleeve.

Georgia and Mississippi State have played each other four times this season, with UGA going 4-0, and now both teams find themselves at the crossroads of punching a ticket to the College World Series.

There has been one constant in each of those previous meetings: Georgia was on the road — three games in Starkville, Mississippi, during the regular season, and in Hoover, Alabama, for the SEC Tournament.

But now UGA welcomes the Bulldogs to Foley Field for the first time since 2022 — a series Georgia won — where it will finally get to lean on its crowd instead of trying to block it out.

“I think our fans will be out and be out in full force,” UGA coach Wes Johnson said. “They did phenomenal for us in the regional and all season, all our SEC weekends, and everything. Our fans are going to come out; it’s going to be a big advantage for us.”

Fans put on a great showing during regional play a week ago and are expected to play even more of a role in this weekend’s super regional. According to UGA Athletics, the series is sold out, with the majority of tickets on secondary markets averaging close to $300 or standing room only.

Johnson said during media availability Thursday that Foley can be a real advantage for his team, especially when it welcomes fresh blood that may not understand how this place works.

“I think it’s our ballpark, and we know how to play at our field,” he said. “Our field is obviously unique and different, and I think that’s what makes it hard to play here.”

Georgia is 49-12 this season, with 34 of those wins coming at home.

One of the features that UGA typically takes advantage of is knowing how to hit at home. That sounds easy enough, but when you have a short porch of 314 feet in right field, it can look very appetizing for hitters to get out of their game, leading to more pop-outs and strikeouts.

“Well, obviously that’s a unique feature of this great ballpark,” MSU coach Brian O’Connor said. “And yeah, sometimes you get concerned if you go to certain parks and players intentionally try to pull the ball and hit the ball out of the ballpark.”

With how prolific these lineups are — ranking one and two offensively in the SEC — the likelihood of some home runs being hit is high. How many? Well, that is to be determined.

As for the opener on Saturday, both teams will be trotting out their aces to the mound, who have each faced these opposing lineups before this year.

Georgia will have Joey Volchko toe the rubber, while MSU sends out Tomas Valincius. UGA was held in check by Valincius back on April 3. The left-hander went 7.1 innings and struck out 10, but did give up a pair of solo homers that ended up being the difference in UGA’s 3-1 victory.

UGA catcher Daniel Jackson knows the challenges Valincius and this top-5 SEC pitching staff pose, but said, “we just got to keep grinding” against arms like this who make it hard to score. While Georgia is undefeated this season against MSU, the margin of victory is just seven runs.

As for Volchko, he will be making his third start against Mississippi State on Saturday morning. Volchko is 2-0 this season against the Bulldogs with a combined line of 10 innings pitched, allowed 15 hits, four runs (all earned), only walked two and struck out four.

Unlike MLB, where pitchers face the same lineup multiple times on the regular, college pitchers rarely face the same team two, let alone three, times. The familiar opponent could cause some to overthink and try to change who they are.

Johnson said Volchko and some other pitchers brought up those concerns with him earlier this week. The UGA skipper relied on his past big-league coaching experience to calm them down and noted it is all about executing the game plan.

“You don’t change anything; it’s not like you make up a fourth pitch, right, or a fifth pitch,” Johnson said. “… You’ve got to go execute it. You’re not going to surprise them with a pitch. They’re going to know what we’re doing, and we’re going to know what they’re doing. You just got to go win.”

That seems to be the message the team has been preaching heading into this weekend. There are no more in-game secrets left for either group. Both sides understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This series will ultimately come down to who can play a better brand of baseball across two or three games.

“You have the game plan set from previous games, and so you kind of just have to attack those holes that they have,” UGA shortstop Kolby Branch said. “Avoid the strengths of them, and it’s going to be basically, who can do that the best, who can game plan the best. But at the end of the day, it’s still baseball, and the team that plays best wins.”