That is, except the co-SEC east football notch, basketball SEC championship notch, Gymnastics national championship notch, and men's tennis SEC championship notch...
Oh and add to that a regular season SEC champion notch in baseball!
This part of the blog is biased for us at Dawgs on Top. Not because we love everything red and black, but because we hold the Georgia baseball team dear to our hearts. Two of us were lucky enough to live in the houses on the top of Kudzu Hill in the right outfield of Foley Field. They are lovingly known to the Athens public, television commentators and Jeff Dantzler as the "green house" and the brick house.
We came into the season with high expectations for this year's squad. Not because Dave Perno loves winning big every other year. Not because we saw the SEC in a down year. Not even because we returned national player of the year candidate Gordon Beckham and "let's start up the bus" closer Joshua Fields. For some reason, we looked at the lineup and felt like Beckham, Fields, Peisel, Demperio, Poythress, Olsen, Cerione, Fuller, Allen, and the veteran pitching staff could once again bring glory to the Diamond Dawg program.
We knew we would find out quickly what the Dawgs were made of with early series against nationally respected Arizona and the defending national champs, Oregon State. And yet, after a disappointing 2-4 start against these ballclubs, we still saw some potential.
Ok. We saw a lot of potential.
Gordon Beckham was a bright spot. He was at the top of the Rivals.com power rankings for middle infielders and coaches across the country were claiming he saw the baseball like one looked at a beach ball. Little did they know that he would enter Tuesday's game against rival Georgia Tech with 22 HRs (leading the nation). Little did they know that Josh Fields would be working with a sub-1.00 ERA (and an SEC leading number of saves).
The squad left that tough opening stretch only to win their first 6 conference series, including sweeps over talented Kentucky and South Carolina teams. Georgia won with pitching when it was needed, hitting when it was needed and even the heroics of Beckham when he was needed.
So, UGA entered its series in Nashville with a lead in the SEC that needed only wins in 2 of the 3 games to lock up the regular season title and after a disappointing loss on Friday, the team looked poised for a late-season letdown. Saturday and Sunday, however, provided perfect examples as to why this team may be bound for even greater glory. A 4-2 win and a 12-10 win both locked up the regular season title and showed that the Dawgs can pull it of from the mound and the dish.
We're not saying that Georgia will claim a top 8 national seed, walk through the SEC tourney, or make magic happen in Omaha, but we want every casual Georgia baseball fan out there to know that these kids are for real. They perform when they need to and think that they can play for anyone.
Georgia plays GT at the Ted (Turner Field in ATL) Tuesday and host Alabama in Athens on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Show them the support they deserve because they truly are fun to watch and you may witness some of the magic two of the best players in UGA history have been creating all year long.
From Dawgs on Top to the 2008 Georgia baseball team, congratulations on the regular season title and good luck this week. We'll be out there loud and proud.
Fear the Megaphone.
1 comment:
Add a women's tennis SEC tournament championship in there too!
Post a Comment