By: Kipp Branch

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

As I sat at the campsite on beautiful Lake Oconee last Sunday evening, I got on my phone and watched UGA fall to a hot hitting FSU squad in the finals of the Athens regional and it was obvious that this UGA baseball program is on the right track. Even Captain Obvious would be in agreement with me on the subject of UGA baseball.

The 2019 Bulldogs finished the season with a 46-17 record after reaching the NCAA Athens Regional final.

The 46 wins is top 5 in school history and the 21 SEC wins is the most ever in a season for the baseball Dawgs. Georgia earned a National Seed two straight years and played host to an NCAA Regional in back-to-back seasons.

Yeah, The Dawgs lost to Duke and FSU at home over the last two seasons as a regional host, but baseball may be the greatest game on the planet. If a team gets hot at the right time and just goes on a tear, they are tough. That is what has happened to UGA over the last two baseball seasons.

I laugh at people who say this team choked without doing the research on how this baseball program has evolved.

As a fan of the program you hate to see your favorite team lose to anyone, but realize that prior to hiring of Scott Stricklin the Bulldogs had gone 42-72 the previous 4 years in SEC play and had conference records of 5-23 in 2011, and 7-20 in 2013. When Stricklin was hired the program was a dumpster fire.

It takes time to build a quality baseball program and when Strickin was hired in 2014 the rebuild was put into motion.

It took four tough years to start seeing results, and those results came in 2018 when UGA went 39-21 and 18-12 in the SEC. Anyone who follows UGA athletics can see that the program is rising to being one of the elite baseball programs in the conference.

The 21 SEC wins this season show that the program is on a solid foundation. I personally believe that a baseball rebuild is much harder than a football or basketball rebuild job.

Give credit to Greg McGarity, the UGA AD, for giving Stricklin the opportunity to put his stamp on the program. The results are starting to come in. Look at the Dawgs drafted in this week’s MLB draft.

Georgia’s draft picks were junior third baseman Aaron Schunk (2nd Round, Colorado), junior pitcher Tony Locey (3rd Round, St. Louis), junior pitcher Tim Elliott (4th Round, Seattle), senior second baseman LJ Talley (7th Round, Toronto), junior pitcher Zac Kristofak (14th Round, L.A. Angels), junior shortstop Cam Shepherd (20th Round, Tampa Bay), junior outfielder Tucker Maxwell (22nd Round, Philadelphia) and redshirt sophomore outfielder/infielder Riley King (26th Round, Atlanta).

When you have 8 players drafted from your current program things are clicking. Georgia has great pitching coming back in 2020, young talents like Randon Jernigan, and 12-13 new players coming in the 2020 recruiting class.

This team isn’t going anywhere folks except a Super Regional or a College World Series in the near future.

Scott Stricklin deserves a raise for the job he is doing in Athens. 85-38 overall and 39-21 in the SEC over the past two seasons. The rebuild has turned into reload mode now.

Georgia baseball is firmly on the right track.