ATHENS — Little Orphan Annie had nothing on the Georgia baseball team.
It’s been “the hard-knock life” for the Bulldogs all season, and it will get no easier the next three days as they play host to Vanderbilt in the final SEC series of the regular season.
Essentially Georgia (27-26, 15-12 SEC) needs to win at least two games against the powerful Commodores (42-8, 20-7) to have a realistic shot at NCAA regional play after next week’s SEC tournament.
“We didn’t want to put ourselves in a situation where it’s a must-win, but it kind of feels like that,” said second baseman Levi Hyams, who leads Georgia with a .343 batting average. “But we’re here, and that’s kind of the story of our season. We make everything tough.”
The Bulldogs have been a mystery for almost everyone who follows college baseball. Their record in the mighty SEC is actually the fourth-best in the conference, but it is 12-14 against everybody else. They trail Florida, Vanderbilt and South Carolina, all three national Top 10 teams and each one vying this weekend to become outright SEC champion. That will be the motivation for the Commodores (42-8), who were ranked No. 1 in the country before dropping two to the Gators this past weekend.
Meanwhile, Georgia maintains a lofty RPI of 24 with the No. 2-rated strength of schedule, which should make them an easy pick for the NCAA selection committee. Trouble is, the committee requires a winning record for consideration. So the Bulldogs effectively need to sweep the series against Vanderbilt to assure a better-than-.500 ledger heading into the double-elimination SEC tournament, for which they already are qualified.
“They’re in trouble,” said Jim Callis, managing editor of Baseball America. “A reasonable expectation is for them to win one of three against Vanderbilt, and then they’d still need to go 3-2 in the SEC Tournament. And even if they somehow win two of three, they still can’t go two-and-out in the conference tournament. It’s not impossible, but they’ve put themselves in a tough situation.”
That’s not the way the Bulldogs are looking at it. They are focusing only on the first game. That’s because they’ve dropped the first game of their past five SEC series.
“We just need to get a Game One win,” Georgia coach David Perno said. “You simplify it, and unfortunately that’s what has put us in this situation.”
Understandably, they’re pulling out all the stops in this Game 1. They’ve moved up normal Saturday starter Michael Palazzone for Thursday’s nationally televised contest (7:30 p.m., ESPNU). Palazzone (8-3, 3.09 ERA), a junior right-hander from Marietta, had won six SEC games in a row before losing the past two weekends.
“Well, when your season’s in the balance, you’ve got to make certain you give your best guy a chance to make a difference,” Perno said.
Vandy will counter with ace Sonny Gray (9-3), who comes in with a 1.91 ERA with 99 strikeouts and 35 walks in 89 1/3 innings.
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