Play Ball
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It’s college baseball’s Opening Day! With the beginning of the season looming, let’s dive into what this season could look like for a couple clubs across the state of Georgia.
Georgia Tech: This season will be the 130th season of baseball for the Jackets and 32nd year under head coach Danny Hall.
Last season saw the white and gold finish with a 33-25 record thanks to rattling off four straight series wins in ACC play in the month of April and winning five of the last seven series in the regular season.
The 2024 campaign ended in the finals of the Athens Regional as a 10-inning loss at the hands of the in-state rival Georgia kept the Jackets from advancing to a Super Regional and continues the drought that hasn’t seen the Jackets advance past a regional since 2006.
The 2025 season will see many fresh faces to the Flats with 31 newcomers into the program this season. Inside that list of newcomers includes the nation’s #2 ranked freshman class by Perfect Game with 21 freshmen coming into the program.
In addition, there will also be a good nucleus of returners for GT led by Drew Burress who took the college baseball world by storm last season.
Burress in his rookie season last year set the Freshman record for homeruns at Georgia Tech with 25 long balls in route to hitting .381 and driving in 67 RBI while collecting ACC Freshman of the Year and named a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist.
Obviously, there are huge expectations for Burress coming into 2025 being named the D1 Baseball pre-season ACC Player of the Year, but other names add to the list of returners to watch.
Tate McKee also showed flashes as a freshman last year on the mound and is expected to be the Opening Day starter for the Jackets on the bump to build off the 4-5 record in 18 appearances (8 starts) last season.
Again, I may be biased (calling GT Baseball games on radio every day), but this Jackets club has the potential to be special.
Drew Burress said it perfectly in the pre-season media availability when he said, “This team has a lot more talent than last year, so the celling is so much higher, but at this point the floor is much lower because we haven’t hit the field.” A lot to prove, but also a lot to be excited about in Midtown Atlanta.
Georgia: Year one for the Bulldogs under new Head Coach Wes Johnson proved to be successful with hosting a Super Regional at Foley Field after winning the Athens Regional.
The off-season has been about construction. In the literal sense, Foley Field has undergone a $45 million renovation upgrade process with incredible additions to one of the country’s best atmospheres to begin with. In the figurative side, Wes Johnson has gone to work “constructing” a much deeper club for the Dawgs in 2025.
Even with the departures of Charlie Condon and Corey Collins in the middle of the lineup, many across the country believe that UGA will be deeper and more balanced up and down the lineup than last year with both returners and some portal acquisitions.
Two of the three outfielders expected to trot out of the dugout this weekend for the Dawgs come from the transfer portal with former Duke Blue Devil Devin Obee and Kentucky transfer Nolan McCarthy expected to play left and center, respectively.
Pair those two immediate impact players with some returners of Tre Phelps, Kolby Branch and Slate Alford, and Wes Johnson has a much deeper starting 9. While the Dawgs finished 2024 with an impressive 43-17 record, the pre-season #9 team in the nation has one thought on the mind…Omaha.
It’s a wonderful time of year. In addition to high level basketball, baseball season is here as MLB Pitchers and Catchers reported earlier this week, and this weekend, the bats will ping, the smell of hotdogs and popcorn will roll through college baseball cathedrals, and it’s time to play ball.
