It’s all there for the taking.
If Georgia can win this weekend’s home series against Ole Miss, the Bulldogs are likely in the NCAA Tournament. A series loss to end the regular season, however, will leave the team needing a deep run in the SEC Tournament to make the field of 64.
After all the injuries and adversity that has befallen Georgia this season, the season likely comes down to these three games.
“I’m happy to be playing for something here this last weekend to get to the postseason,” head coach Scott Stricklin said. “We’re already in the SEC tournament for the fifth year in a row. We need to get this team beyond the SEC tournament. We’ve pieced it together, it has been difficult, but here we are. We’ve got a chance to play for something big this weekend.”
Heading into the series against the Rebels, Georgia is 29-21 overall and 12-15 in the SEC. As of May 19, Baseball America has the Bulldogs as the third team out of the tournament.
Two wins over Ole Miss would greatly help Georgia’s cause. A series win almost certainly would move Stricklin’s team into the field.
Stricklin has talked all year about how the team hasn’t shied away from discussing things like RPI rankings and strength of schedule in the clubhouse. With that in mind, he doesn’t anticipate needing to give a big rah-rah speech before the series begins on Thursday night.
“I’ve done that before and sometimes it’s like I didn’t even say anything,” Stricklin said. “They know what’s at stake. We’ve got a lot of really high character kids on this team. These upperclassmen have been here before, so they’ll be ready to play. I’m not going to need to stoke the fire too much.”
One of those upperclassmen is outfielder Riley King. The fifth-year senior will be playing his final series at Foley Field this weekend.
King has been in this type of situation before, but the freshmen on the team have not. He plans on telling them that despite the stakes, this weekend is just like every other series.
“Ever since y’all got here, I’ve noticed how mature y’all are,” King said he plans on telling the freshmen. “This situation’s not too big for y’all. You’re going to do your thing. Just be yourself and good things are going to happen.”
Georgia comes into this weekend having lost its last three series. However, Stricklin felt his team played well in road series losses at Arkansas and Florida over the past two weeks.
Even still, Georgia’s postseason destiny is in its hands. The next three days will see the Bulldogs’ postseason hopes either sink or swim.
“If you get hot at the right time, good things will happen,” King said. “I think it’s a good time to get hot.”