Kyle Farmer came to Georgia in 2009 at the same time as a promising young infielder from South Georgia named Chance Veazey. They became fast friends, decided to room together and dreamed of leading the Bulldogs back to the College World Series.
Now seniors, Veazey remains Farmer’s roommate. But a tragic scooter accident in the fall of 2009 left Veazey paralyzed and he now works with the team as a student assistant coach. Farmer stars for the Bulldogs at shortstop and passed over a chance to sign with the New York Yankees for his final year of eligibility.
The reason? “So me and Chance could go to the College World Series together,” he said.
At this point, that seems highly unlikely. The Bulldogs enter the final quarter of the season and Tuesday’s game against Georgia Tech at 15-26 overall and 4-14 in the SEC. They’re dead last in the SEC East and two games out of qualification for the 12-team SEC Tournament.
To say the least, it’s not what Farmer expected.
“It’s almost like a bad luck thing,” said Farmer, who’s batting .306 and leads the Bulldogs with 40 RBI. “It gets worse and worse and worse. Hopefully something good will come out of it. I know I’ve become a better person. I’ve got a lot more respect for baseball and for life in general and so does everybody on this team. But it’s tough. It definitely is.”
Georgia’s season got off to a bad start before it ever got started. The Bulldogs lost three junior starters — pitcher Pete Nagel (elbow), catcher Brandon Stephens (elbow) and center fielder Connor Welton (shoulder) — to season-ending injuries that required surgery before playing the first game.
Georgia proceeded to lose six of their first eight games against Georgia Southern, Kennesaw State, Belmont and Georgia State, then dropped nine in a row in March. The Bulldogs have since registered wins against No. 8 Kentucky and No. 2 Vanderbilt, but have yet to win an SEC series. They’ll be looking to do that when they host No. 14 Arkansas this weekend.
There have been off-the-field issues as well. Coach David Perno has dismissed two highly touted freshmen from Columbus — Kyle Carter last fall and J.T. Phillips this past weekend — after their arrests.
“There’s no one thing,” said Perno, who is in his 12th season as head coach. “There’s been some distractions off the field, untimely injuries. Some key guys have struggled in some key moments. That makes it tough. And we’ve screwed up our fair share of games. Nobody’s fault. It just happens. And it’s an unforgiving league.”
The key issue at this point, Perno said, is an intangible one.
“Confidence is everything, in my opinion,” he said. “That’s the deal. Good momentum is everything in this game, guys feeling good and feeling confident. If you don’t have the confidence, then the press starts happening. … And you press in this game, it’s going to press harder back.”
Nevertheless, the Bulldogs continue to believe a turning point is coming and there could be no better potential change of direction than beating Georgia Tech at Turner Field. The Yellow Jackets (27-13) beat Georgia 7-5 on April 9 in Atlanta and the teams will play for a third time May 14 in Athens.
“We’re always locked in against Tech, as they are against us,” senior catcher Brett DeLoach said. “Huge rivalry. We still have two games left against them, so we want to go out there and play a good game, give everything we’ve got for nine innings and see what happens.”
Said Farmer: “We can turn around our season. We have an opportunity to make the (SEC) tournament. That’s what we really want to do. I expected a lot more, but it’s something I’ve got to deal with and push through.”
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