At the start of each week throughout the regular season, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will take a closer look at the Georgia baseball team. Here’s a breakdown of the Bulldogs going into the fourth week of the campaign:
Record: 16-1, 0-0 SEC
Streak: Won 8
Rankings: No. 23 (College Baseball Nation)
Last Week (6-0)
Tuesday: Beat Georgia Southern 7-2
Wednesday: Beat Stetson 11-5
Friday: Beat Northern Colorado 11-1 (7 innings)
Saturday: Beat Northern Colorado 19-1 (7)
Saturday: Beat Northern Colorado 14-6
Sunday: Beat Northern Colorado 11-1 (7)
This Week
Tuesday: vs. Iowa (7-8), 5 p.m.
Friday: at Kentucky (13-3, 0-0), 6:30 p.m.
Saturday: at Kentucky, 2 p.m.
Sunday: at Kentucky, 1 p.m.
Week in review
Georgia is off to its best start in modern-day history. Technically, the 1908 Bulldogs did better. That squad went 20-2 for the season, but two of the losses were to professional teams, so technically they were 20-0.
But 16-1 is the best start since Georgia went 15-2 to begin the 2019, 2009 and 1992 seasons. It’s worth noting that the Bulldogs made the NCAA Tournament all three of those seasons.
Georgia got there by going 6-0 while playing six games in six days this past week. Notably, the Bulldogs clubbed six grand slams by five different players during that stretch. Second baseman Slate Alford, a first-year transfer from Mississippi State, accounted for two of those. Catcher Fernando Gonzalez is credited for the last one. The school record for a season is eight in 2019. With two more home runs on Sunday, the Bulldogs have hit 48 home runs in 17 games, which leads Division I baseball.
Georgia’s Charlie Condon continues to be the talk of college baseball. The redshirt sophomore, who has played every position but middle infield or catcher, leads the NCAA in six offensive categories -- batting (.565), slugging (1.290), on-base percentage (.659), hits (35), home runs (12), runs scored (29). On Monday, he was named SEC player of the week for the second time this season after hitting .556 with two doubles, four homers, 10 RBI, seven walks and four hit-by-pitch. He also was named the Dick Howser player of the month for February.
Week ahead
Play time is over.
While the Bulldogs have enjoyed getting fat and happy against overmatched non-conference competition, all that gets thrown out the window this weekend when they head to Kentucky to open SEC play.
The Wildcats (13-3) are representative of the league this year in their dominance over the first month of the season. Their most notable games have been against Kansas, which they won 8-5, and Washington State, which beat them 6-4. This past weekend, Kentucky lost two of three to Kennesaw State in Lexington. It will play one more against Murray State on Tuesday before Georgia arrives.
The rest of the SEC likewise has been feasting. Texas A&M is 16-0, Tennessee (15-1-1) and Alabama (15-1) each have won 15 games and Missouri (8-8) is the only conference team without a winning record.
They said it
“There’s a lot of teams that have really good non-conference records and do not make the tournament. We all know you got to play good starting Friday. You have to play good when it really starts to count. First, we’ll prepare for Iowa, a good team coming in Tuesday, and then we’ll focus on the start of SEC play when we go to Kentucky.” – Georgia coach Wes Johnson
“It’s been crazy. People always say that hitting is contagious and I think that’s one of the biggest things. When you get hot and know you can do it, you get up there and believe. Coach Johnson preaches that a lot: ‘Get up there and believe.’” – Georgia catcher Fernando Gonzalez on the Bulldogs’ Division I-leading 48 home runs.
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