Tony Locey’s opponent on the mound for Friday night’s opener in the Athens Regional will be someone he’s very familiar with: former Houston County High teammate Tanner Hall.

The junior left-hander is 8-5 for the Bears with a 4.67 ERA, while Locey is 10-2 with an ERA of 2.68.

“I know him pretty well,” Locey said. “We won a state championship back in 2016, but with every team in the SEC I know a lot of guys, played travel ball with them, played against them so I don’t make it such a big deal.”

Hall tried his best to agree, but acknowledged knowing his former teammate is on the opposing mound will make the game every more interesting.

"Sure, it adds a little something to it," Hall said. "Everybody knows what a tough competitor he is. I've just got to do what I can to give my team the best chance to win. I'm sure we'll both try not to make it a bigger deal than what it is."

However, both agree that the same is not necessarily true for the folks back in Houston County, according to Locey, many of whom are expected to make the journey to Athens to watch the two match up on the mound.

“It’s a bigger deal for people in our home town who loved watching us play and winning the state championship at Houston County,” Locey said. “As far as I know, a lot of people are coming. The old ‘HoCo Locos’ are going to be here. That was our crazy student section back in high school. Bottom line, they’re going to be heckling both of us; that’s what they love to do. They cheered for us for three years, now they get to go against us. There’s a lot of them who are Bears, a lot of them are Dawgs; the bottom line is, we’ve got to come out on top.”

Hall laughed at the prospect of having his former team's cheering section giving he and Locey what-for.

"I guess we'll find out who's for Team Tanner and Team Tony," Hall said. "It's going to be an interesting game."

Mike Martin’s four trips to Athens haven’t exactly resulted in the outcomes the retiring skipper of the Florida State Seminoles has liked.

Georgia is 7-5 against the Seminoles in their four previous series at Foley Field, including dropping the 2001 Super Regional and 2006 Athens Regionals by dropping two of three games to the Bulldogs in each.

However, baseball wasn’t initially on his mind when he spoke to reporters after his team’s practice session in preparation for FSU’s first-game against Florida Atlantic. Instead, Martin offered a brief history lesson.

“What makes the University of Georgia special: 1785? Holy Mackerel. I’m not a historian, but that’s a long time ago,” Martin said. “It beats our 1946, I believe, when we were a women’s school.”

Those weren’t the only words Martin had to say about the university, speaking fondly about his visits—other than the outcomes.

“I just remember the fans being so cordial,” Martin said. “They’re Georgia Bulldogs, but they were so classy the way they went about their business. It was an outstanding tournament, we played decent baseball, and had a couple of chances, but they got us out in key situations.”

Scott Stricklin confirmed that Emerson Hancock (8-2, 1.31) will start Saturday’s second game in the Athens Regional after Locey opens on the mound for Georgia against Mercer.

According to Stricklin, there was really not much talk of doing otherwise.

“There was not a lot, to be honest with you. We felt really good about where we were, Tony being on Friday night. Tony loves Friday night. He loves the feeling of being that No. 1 guy. He’s done that the last few weeks, and he pitched last Friday at the SECs,” Stricklin said. “So, more or less, we’re just staying on schedule, but at the end of the day, that’s kind of where we’ve been. With Emerson throwing in the two-hole, I think that works out really well.”

Stricklin’s still not sure who would start on Sunday should the Bulldogs ultimately advance to the championship round.

“We’ll see when we get there. Cole Wilcox will be available to throw in the bullpen, but you’ve got Tim Elliott as well, and Logan Moody,” Stricklin said. “So, we’ve got options. But we’ll worry about that later. Hopefully, we can win on Friday, win on Saturday, and we’ll have that decision to make. But we haven’t decided exactly what we’re going to do yet.”

For the second straight year, junior Aaron Schunk has been named a finalist for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award, the College Baseball Foundation announced Thursday.

Schunk leads the Bulldogs in batting at .336 with 11 home runs and 45 RBI plus has a team-high 12 saves to with a 1-2 mark and 2.49 ERA.

Along with Schunk, the other finalists are juniors Tristin English (Georgia Tech), Will Matthiessen (Stanford), sophomore Alec Burleson (East Carolina) and freshman Davis Sharpe (Clemson).

"All season long, trimming this list to semifinalists and now to finalists has proven very difficult due to the outstanding seasons put forth by all our two-way players,” Olerud Award chairman George Watson said in a statement. “But these five finalists have differentiated themselves not only through the statistics they’ve racked up but by being leaders of their respective teams. Each one of these finalists is more than deserving of this award.”

The Olerud Award is named for the former Washington State University standout, who achieved success both as a first baseman and left-handed pitcher during the late 1980s and was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. The award will be presented later this summer.

…The entire series is listed as a sellout.

…Georgia’s 44 wins ranks sixth in school history.

…The Bulldogs are 28-3 at home this year.

…Georgia is making its 12th appearance in the NCAA Championships and serving as a regional host for the sixth time. This year, the Bulldogs earned a No. 4 national seed, its highest ever.