Preview: Georgia Baseball Primed for Promising 2024 Season
After spending the last ten seasons with Scott Stricklin at the helm, Georgia baseball is entering a new era under former National Champion Wes Johnson. The new leadership has the Bulldog faithful excited as the Diamond Dawgs are primed for a promising 2024 season, led by their possible top-ten MLB draft pick, Charlie Condon.
Georgia is less than a week away from starting their new era under the former LSU assistant. Let's preview the Diamond Dawgs schedule in one of college baseball's toughest conferences, featuring eight of the top 25 spots in the preseason polls. Georgia enters this season with seven total returners who saw any playing time in the batter's box while returning nine players who saw time on the mound. What is a promising sign through the limited returners on the roster is that your batting leader and ERA leader both decided to stay and help the transition of the Dawgs under Johnson.
They start their season against a UNC Asheville squad that comes off a 26-26 record from the 2023 season, then move to a game in Atlanta against Georgia State, then a series against Northern Kentucky, a game against Presbyterian College, Michigan State, a series against Georgia Tech to start the month of March, a game against Georgia Southern and Stetson, then a series against Northern Colorado, one game against the No. 20 Iowa Hawkeyes, and then they start SEC play.
They started conference play against the Kentucky Wildcats, who finished fifth in the East last season with a 40-21 record, beating Georgia one time while being the ninth-ranked team in the country at the time, but still hosted a regional round for the NCAA tournament. The three-game series is set to take place in Lexington, KY., where the Wildcats went 21-7 last season. Both teams have time to see what their squad looks like for that game, but the Dawgs won't have an easy one in The Bluegrass State.
Georgia has a game against Wofford, then moves on to the current No. 19 team in the country, Alabama. The Diamond Dawgs welcome the Crimson Tide to Athens after not playing them in the 2023 season. Alabama finished fourth in a tough SEC West with a 43-21 record and a regional round in Tuscaloosa. This late-March series will be a true test of what Georgia baseball will be in 2024 as they welcome two new teams to the conference. They have a game against the Mercer Bears, then travel to another tough baseball environment in the SEC.
College baseball's No. 9 team, the Tennessee Volunteers, welcomes their rivals for a series in Knoxville, TN. Tennessee has burst onto the college baseball scene in the last two years primarily, finishing 44-22 and fourth in the East last season. The Dawgs won the series last year, 2-1, but that didn't stop them from eventually heading to Omaha to fall to Johnson's LSU Tigers. LSU's former pitching coach knows how to topple the Volunteers, yet LSU had way better talent than Georgia. Johnson could do it again after the Diamond Dawgs proved they can compete with the SEC's best.
Georgia's dugout celebrates first baseman Charlie Condon's (24) home run on the Gators, Friday, April 14, 2023, at Condron Family Baseball Park in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators lost Game 1 of the weekend series to the Bulldogs 13-11. 2023 Gator Baseball April 14, 2023 Condron Family Ballpark Georgia Bulldogs. (Cyndi Chambers / USA TODAY NETWORK).
Georgia has another game against Georgia State, then a series against Mississippi State, which finished with a similar record as Georgia last year. They play Kennesaw State, then have a series against Missouri, which finished with a 30-24 overall record but a 10-20 SEC record, which placed them last in the East, though three of those ten wins came from a series sweep against Georgia. The Dawgs then have a series against one of the more popular jerseys in college baseball, the Ole Miss Rebels. They finished last in the West last year with a 6-24 but picked up two of those wins against Georgia. The Dawgs will need to flip the script in that regard.
The Diamond Dawgs welcome the No. 10 Clemson Tigers for a game, then travel to the No. 8 Texas A&M Aggies for a series, another game with Kennesaw State, and then host the No. 6 Vanderbilt Commodores. They then travel to the No. 25 South Carolina Gamecocks and finish their regular season by hosting the national title runner-ups, the No. 2 Florida Gators. This mid-May series will lead Georgia into the SEC Championship that takes place from May 21st to May 26th.
A total of seven preseason top-25 matchups are in line for Georgia during this season. Although they don't have many returning starters, the Bulldogs racked up 31 newcomers to put their recruiting class at seventh overall. Some newcomers include Kolby Branch, who won the "Triple Crown" for Baylor as a freshman, Daniel Padysak, who started for the Czech Republic in the World Baseball Classic, and Stanford pitching transfer Brandt Pancer. The Diamond Dawgs could be much improved this coming season. They take on UNC Asheville this Friday at 3 p.m., with the series wrapping up Sunday at 1 p.m.
Other Georgia News:
- 2024 Mock Draft: Post Reese's Senior Bowl Mock Draft
- Georgia Bulldogs Put On a Show In the Senior Bowl
- Ladd McConkey has set Himself up for a Long NFL Career
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