Georgia baseball: Everything to know about the Athens Regional

A lot can change in 365 days.

A year ago, Georgia decided to make a head coaching change in its baseball program after missing the NCAA Tournament. On Monday, UGA learned that not only is it hosting an NCAA Regional, but there could potentially be a Super Regional played in Athens to decide a spot in the College World Series.

Despite a recent rough stretch, Georgia is the No. 7 overall national seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. UNC Wilmington, Georgia Tech and Army will compete against the Bulldogs in the Athens Regional.

If the Dawgs win the Athens Regional, they’ll host a best-of-3 Super Regional against the winner of the Raleigh Regional hosted by No. 10 NC State for a spot in Omaha.

In the first season under Wes Johnson, Georgia went 39-14 in the regular season, posting a 17-13 mark in conference contests. It helped that Johnson inherited a roster with Charlie Condon. The redshirt sophomore is the SEC Player of the Year after smashing 35 home runs, a BBCOR-era NCAA record, while leading the nation with a .443 batting average.

UGA has been scuffling a bit as of late, dropping the Florida series with back-to-back losses to end the regular season and falling to LSU in the single-elimination first round of the SEC Tournament, bringing the overall record to 39-15.

Up until the recent 3-game losing skid, Georgia had been one of the hottest teams in college baseball. Back-to-back May sweeps of Vanderbilt and South Carolina saw the Bulldogs climb in RPI. UGA entered Selection Monday with the No. 6 RPI in the nation, earning them the No. 7 overall seed from the committee.

Here’s a rundown of the teams in the Athens Regional:

4. Army – 31-21 overall, 16-8 Patriot League

RPI: 124 | Quad 1: 0-1 | Quad 2: 3-3  | Quad 3: 7-6  | Quad 4: 21-11

Wes Johnson sees a challenging first opponent for the Dawgs.

“Starting with Army, they can really pitch,” Johnson told the Georgia team website. “It’s going to be a different look, not a ton of velo, but don’t get me wrong, they just don’t have a guy who is going to throw 100 is what I’m trying to say. They can really pitch; they mix their pitches well.

“They’ve got a couple guys, especially right there in the middle of the order, hitting over .300 with 14 or 15 homers, and they’ve got guys who can steal some bases. They’re going to do a lot of things.”

After dropping its first conference tournament game to Bucknell, Army won its next 4 games to win the conference title, beating Bucknell and Navy twice each.

The Black Knights went 11-12 in nonconference clashes this season. Away from home, Army was 11-7 on the road and 6-5 in neutral-site games.

3. Georgia Tech – 31-23 overall, 15-15 ACC

RPI: 49  | Quad 1: 10-14 | Quad 2: 4-3  | Quad 3: 6-5  | Quad 4: 11-1

Georgia Tech was on the bubble, but made it in the field of 64. The Yellow Jackets ended the regular season dropping 2-of-3 to Florida State before going 0-2 in the ACC Tournament against FSU and Virginia.

As an in-state rival, Georgia Tech is a familiar foe for UGA. The teams played a nonconference weekend series of games in Atlanta, Athens and Lawrenceville.  The Atlanta game was rained out in the bottom of the 5th, with the Dawgs winning at Foley Field (3-1) and Coolray Field (11-9).

It’s not guaranteed that we’ll get another Georgia-Georgia Tech game. The Yellow Jackets will face 2-seed UNC Wilmington before entering the winner’s or loser’s bracket.

2. UNC Wilmington – 39-19 overall, 20-7 Coastal Athletic

RPI: 34 | Quad 1: 5-5  | Quad 2: 7-5  | Quad 3: 11-4  | Quad 4: 16-5

UNC Wilmington enters the NCAA Tournament on a 4-game winning streak. The Seahawks won their regular-season finale against Delaware to avoid a sweep before going 3-0 in the Coastal Athletic Tournament to win the league title.

UNCW brings a pair of 15-game starters to Athens. RJ Sales owns a 10-3 record with 3.70 ERA over 87.2 IP. Assuming Sales throws against Georgia Tech, UGA may expect to see Jacob Shafer. This season, Shafer is 4-5, posting a 5.50 ERA over 75.1 IP.

At the plate, Tanner Thach will be an important out. He’s hitting .328 on the year, and leads the team with 74 RBIs and 27 home runs. Trevor Marsh is the team’s top hitter for average at .372 over 56 starts.

Athens Regional Schedule

All times ET

Friday, May 31

• Game 1: 1 Georgia vs. 4 Army, 1 p.m. (ESPN+)
• Game 2: 2 UNC Wilmington vs. 3 Ga. Tech, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)

Saturday, June 1 (TV-TBA)

• Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, Noon
• Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 6 p.m.

Sunday, June 2 (TV-TBA)

• Game 5: Loser Game 4 vs. Winner Game 3, Noon
• Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 6 p.m.

Monday, June 3 (TV-TBA)

• Game 7: (If necessary) Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6, TBA

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.