For the first time in a decade, the Georgia baseball team will host an NCAA regional, squaring off at 7:30 p.m. Friday against Campbell at Foley Field.
It’s been so long since the No. 8 Bulldogs (37-19) were postseason hosts that some of the stars of this year’s team have only vague memories of the 2008 team, which advanced to the College World Series.
“I can’t even remember,” said All-SEC junior slugger Michael Curry, who grew up in Gainesville. “I don’t think I even watched Georgia baseball. The only guy I knew in college baseball at the time was Gordon Beckham. We’ve talked about it being 10 years since Georgia hosted a regional – it’s destiny, it’s our time.”
“In 2008, I would have been in the sixth or seventh grade,” added All-SEC senior outfielder Keegan McGovern, who hails from Willacoochie, east of Tifton. “Honestly, I remember watching it on ESPN and sitting back and thinking, ‘Man it would be awesome to be in their shoes.’”
Georgia – which last made a postseason appearance in 2011 – emerged as a contender this spring after enduring six consecutive losing seasons, the last four under present coach Scott Stricklin.
But things have clicked in a big way for the Bulldogs, who finished in the top four in the SEC and earned the right to host a regional (and possibly a super regional) for the fourth time in school history. Duke (40-15) and Troy (41-19) join the Bulldogs and Fighting Camels (35-24) this weekend and will open the regional at 2 p.m. Friday.
Clearly, it’s been a long time since Georgia has played host, and it comes at a particularly good time, as the Bulldogs have enjoyed playing at home this season.
“It’s huge, it’s a big advantage,” said Stricklin, now 141-138 in five seasons at Georgia. “You look at the percentages, and the percentages say that you’ve got a better chance to move on. We’re 23-6 at home, and we’ve played extremely well in front of our home fans. We’re going to have a sellout here, and I know our fans are going to be very excited to watch us.”
Stricklin and his players took the road often traveled Thursday, saying that as energized as they were about bring Georgia back into the postseason picture, they still viewed Campbell as merely the next opponent on the schedule and will not do anything differently.
And why should they? The weather may or may not cooperate, but there figures to be several thousand denizens of the Bulldog Nation on hand to offer steady encouragement to a club that has gone 7-2 on Friday nights at home this spring.
“We can’t try to change anything,” said Stricklin, who led Kent State to the College World Series in 2012. “We’ve had 14 straight weeks of playing on Friday nights and why change it? Just because it’s a different title doesn’t mean we have to change anything. We’re playing a really good opponent on a Friday night under the lights on our home field. We’re going to treat it like a Friday night SEC game, and we’re going to do everything we can to win.”
“We don’t have to make it another big weekend in our head, or at all,” added Curry, who’s hitting .315 with 10 home runs, 38 runs and 47 RBIs. “It’s just another weekend, and if we play our game, we’re going to be just fine.”
Senior Chase Adkins, who takes the mound for Georgia in the opener, seems to have a pretty solid pregame plan.
“It’s going to be another one of those days – I’ll sleep until 2, wake up, drag myself to the field, get in that shower and go from there,” said Adkins, who is 5-0 with a 4.12 ERA.
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