Athens Regional
WHEN: Friday, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Foley Field
RECORDS: Georgia 44-15; Mercer 35-27
STARTING PITCHERS: Georgia – RH Tony Locey (10-2, 2.68); Mercer LH Tanner Hall (8-5, 4.67)
TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Tom Hart and Kyle Peterson); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler and David Johnston)
Third baseman Aaron Schunk will tell you the wait has been almost unbearable. The 361 days which have passed since Georgia lost to Duke in the championship game of the 2018 Athens Regional weighed heavily on his mind.
Friday night at 7, Schunk and the rest of the 4th-seeded Bulldogs (44-15) hope to start erasing those memories once in for all when they host in-state rival Mercer (35-27) in opening round of this year’s Athens Regional being held at Foley Field.
“Yes, it’s been the longest year in my life,” Schunk said after practice Thursday. “Everything that’s happened, all the work we’ve put in, but to finally get back to this point I’m very excited to have the opportunity for it.
Head coach Scott Stricklin agrees.
“It took a lot of hard work in those 361 days to get here to this point. We have a lot of guys back from last year’s club who remember that, but you have to turn the page. You have to turn the page, learn from it and get ready for this weekend because last year won’t have any bearing on this year,” Stricklin said. “It’s a completely different season. We just have the experience and the knowledge of last season. We just have to go out and play.”
Players spoken to Thursday are confident this year’s results will be different.
For one, the pitching staff has been outstanding all year, ranking fifth nationally in team ERA (3.10) with opponents hitting just .196 collectively. The second is defense. Georgia’s fielding percentage of .981 stands as the best mark in school history.
Third – and perhaps most important – is the Foley Field factor. The Bulldogs are 28-3 at home this year, with all three of its losses coming by one run (1-0 to LIU Brooklyn, 1-0 to LSU, and 3-2 to Vanderbilt in 10 innings).
All games are listed as sellouts.
“That (home field advantage) means a lot. Last year, we got rain-delayed, rain-delayed and the other team would have more fans in the stands,” second baseman LJ Talley said. “It wasn’t really like a home field advantage. I think we’ve already got sellouts for all of the games, so it’s huge. We’re 28-3 and all those losses have been by one run. As long as we don’t make it bigger than it is, we’ll be alright.”
Stricklin’s banking on the experience factor playing a major role as well. Of Georgia’s eight projected position starters, all but three saw action in last year’s Athens Regional.
“You can’t teach experience. In the regionals, everything is different. The atmosphere is different; it’s do-or-die mentality, that’s different, and once your guys are in that, I think they have a tendency to calm you down a little bit and play a little looser,” Stricklin said. “Last year, we may have played a little bit tight. Once you get down and you start thinking ‘oh no, you have to do that, we have to do this.’ Anytime you put yourself in that situation you play a little tighter but I think our guys know they can loosen up, still play the game hard, but stay as relaxed and focused as possible.”
Tony Locey (10-2, 2.68) gets the start in Friday’s opener with Emerson Hancock (8-2, 1.56) getting the start in Saturday’s game against either Florida State or Florida Atlantic.
“I expected us to be in this position that we are right now, so it really hasn’t soaked in yet with adrenalin running the day before but I’m pretty sure when the lights come on, I’ll be fired up and ready to go,” he said. “I’ll just need to take a deep breath and go to work.”
