The Dawgs

 


Last night I took a look at Boston College the Flames first opponent of the Athens Regional.  This time I'll take a deep dive into the Georgia Bulldogs.  If the Flames are able to get through BC they will almost certainly face the Dawgs in game 2.  The Dawgs finished 46-12 and 23-7 in the SEC to win the regular season and going 3-0 in the SEC tourney including an 11-1 smashing of #13 Arkansas in the SEC Championship game.  They finished 7th in the RPI and there were only 2 like opponents which included and 11-1 thrashing of Kennesaw State and an 8-5 win over the Citadel while they did drop the second midweek contest to Kennesaw State 10-7 in what most of the Dawg's beat writers described as a "sleepy midweek loss" for Georgia.  Georgia won the SEC tournament for the first time in program history and finished 1st in the regular season for the time since 2008.  Both stats are a bit stunning for a program that's known as 1 of the best in College Baseball.  The program has 1 national title in 1990 and 6 CWS appearances with the last being in 2008.  The Bulldogs were 1 of the top 5 programs in the country between the late 80's and 2008 before falling off a bit over the past 15 years.  Surprisingly, the Flames and Dawgs have met 10 times with Georgia winning 8.  Liberty won the last contest 11-8 back in 2013 under then skipper Jim Toman. 

Let's take a look at how Georgia stacks up a team. 

Hitting - 1st in Runs per game at 9.3, 1st in HR's at 149, 1st in Batting Average at .329, 1st in OBP .439  1st in Slug at .615, and 1st in OPS at an eye popping 1.053.  6 players with 13 or more HR's.  

Defensively - Fielding% at .984. 

Pitching - 9th in runs per game at 5.03 and ERA at 4.99.  

Top Individual Performers

Daniel Jackson - BA .391, 27 HR's 79 RBI's, .OBP, .813 Slug, 25 SB's.  He came on in a bit of a surprise and is now the 55th rated draft prospect according to MLB Pipeline.  Just put him on!

Tre Phelps - .376 15 HR's 55 RBI's, .679 Slug & .491 OBP

Joey Volchko - 4.18 ERA in 15 starts.  88 K's in 75 IP and .252 Opp BA.  He's been the Friday night starter so the Flames could see he or Dylan Vigue.  

Clearly, Georgia can hit with anybody in the country and if the Flames face the Dawgs it will the biggest challenge of the year for the pitching staff.  They're a solid fielding team with somewhat average pitching comparative in the SEC.  However,  you have to remember the pitching is facing SEC level bats night in and night out so those #'s might be inflated a bit.  If Liberty is able to face Georgia they will have to find a way to limit the walk and keep Georgia in the ballpark to have any shot.  The fact that KSU did manage a win against Georgia shows there's a chance.  Of course, we all know midweek isn't exactly the same as weekend but Liberty went toe to toe with WVU who ended up being a top 16 team and national host.  WVU was much more a pitching and defense team but the Flames took 1 off the Mountaineers on the weekend so they have some experience facing the kind of arms they might see in Athens.  I'm not sure anything could prepare for the lineup that awaits.  



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