Lamenting a Lost Season of Georgia Baseball
The Georgia Bulldogs were supposed to play their final home baseball game of the season yesterday.
Just over two months ago, the NCAA revealed its intentions to cancel all remaining spring and winter competitions due to global health concerns. This included men's and women's basketball tournaments that never got the chance to get underway.
Losing the most game play was collegiate baseball, which was nixed the week major conferences were set to begin conference play. Georgia baseball was ranked third with only two losses, and the Bulldogs were looking forward to what looked like it was going to be the team's best season since the 2008 season, one that included a deep run into the College World Series.
For Georgia, it was the eve of their first conference series upon which the remaining games were axed. The Diamond Dawgs were set to begin a three-game series in Gainesville opposite bitter rival Florida on March 13. On March 12, the team collectively learned that plans were changing.
Again, Georgia held a ranking of third in the country at the time. Florida: top ranked.
The trio of contests was to serve as a litmus test for both teams at the beginning of a long conference slate in a sport that long surpasses the final day of any school's spring semester.
The potential plot lines were plenty: A surging Georgia squad with no real positions of weakness seeks to prove itself against a team that just so happens to be their main rival. That main rival is considered to be the top team in college baseball and was hosting the series. Georgia's baseball team has quickly risen from mediocrity to sustained success. Can they establish dominance over a historically great adversary in 2020?
To fans of either team, of college baseball, or of baseball in general, it's acceptable to lament the loss of what would have been an electric standoff between two great, balanced baseball teams that share a mutual hatred. Never mind that the matchups included a smorgasbord of MLB prospects, the intensity and atmosphere would have kept any fan of the game delightfully engaged.
Yesterday, Scott Stricklin's players would have had the opportunity to conclude what appeared to be a very promising 2020 regular season. It would've taken place at home against Kentucky. Perfect weather for baseball, too; I can report that it's sunny, breezy, and temperatures are in the low 80's as I write this on my porch in Athens.
Georgia also lost out on squaring off in multiple contests against top 25 teams Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Clemson.
Bulldog faithful lost out on something special.
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