SEC Tournament: Georgia versus Oklahoma

WHERE: Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, Hoover, Ala.

WHEN: Wednesday, approximately 5:30 p.m. ET (Game was pushed back due to impending bad weather)

RECORDS: Georgia (42-14, 18-12), Oklahoma (34-19, 14-16)

STARTING PITCHERS: Georgia - RH TJ Quinn (1-1, 2.25) vs Oklahoma (TBA)

TV/RADIO: SEC Network; Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler, David Johnson)

Georgia is sitting in an enviable position as it begins play in the SEC Tournament Wednesday afternoon at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

The Bulldogs are 42-14 and, after finishing 18-12 in conference play, appear to be sitting pretty for a Top 8 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, which begins on Friday, May 30.

Georgia also knows it will be hosting one of the 16 regionals for the second consecutive season. They can take solace in the fact that nothing that happens in Hoover will likely affect its standing in any way.

Still, you'd be mistaken if you think the Bulldogs have nothing to play for. Per shortstop Kolby Branch, Georgia has plenty of motivation.

“There’s motivation in you're playing against the best teams in the country. You’ve got to go out to prove yourself and prove to them that you're right and that you're good, and so that's the motivation,” Branch said. “So, it's not as much what we're fighting for. But if you do go on a run, you put yourself in a really good spot.”

Georgia, which received a first-round bye, will take on Oklahoma on Wednesday at approximately 2 p.m. ET. The Bulldogs took two of three from the Sooners in Athens earlier this year.

The winner gets No. 4 seed Vanderbilt on Thursday night.

Like Branch, head coach Wes Johnson wouldn’t mind seeing his Bulldogs stick around a few days for a couple of reasons.

As a competitor, he wants to win. But also, he’s a big believer in getting his pitching staff as much live work as possible before the regionals begin.

“There’s a lot of motivation, we've got to go play good; I want to get all of our arms some work,” Johnson said. “I’ve said it for years, a perfect scenario, you play two or three games in Hoover, and you come home, right? Don't get me wrong, you're trying to win. You want to win the tournament.”

Still, there’s going to be a method to how Georgia tries to get that done.

That means don’t look for any of the Bulldogs’ weekend starters like Brian Curley or Leighton Finley to see any action until Thursday at the earliest, if Georgia is fortunate to get past Oklahoma in Wednesday’s opening game.

“We’d bullpen almost every day. If fortunate enough to keep winning and keep playing, you're not going to see those guys go more than three or four innings,” Johnson said. “We'll treat this week like a ‘De-load,’ which is what we would have done if we were at home. So, we'll de-load them, meaning they're not going to go more than 60, 70 pitches at the most, meaning Curley and Finley. I’ve said for a lot this year, one of the strengths of this team is the depth of number of pitchers that we can roll out there.”

This year’s tournament will be different than previous SEC events. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the league, the entire tournament is now a single-elimination affair, which Johnson said was done for two reasons.

“It's twofold, you wanted to give, with the expansion of the league, we knew the RPI was going to go up on the league even higher than what it had been,” Johnson said. “You think about it, we're looking at potentially 13 teams getting into the tournament. Under the old format, you only took 12 teams. So, one of the reasons we went to it was that we thought it'd be really tough to get that 13th team in, if they didn't even make their conference tournament.”

Helping teams preserve their arms for the regionals was reason No. 2.

“Yeah, you look at it, burning pitching and everything else, we just felt was giving some other teams in regionals maybe an advantage on this more than what should be,” Johnson said.

• Johnson said outfielder Robbie Burnett (hamstring) will be “game to game” as the Bulldogs do not want to risk him further damaging the injury before the start of regionals.

• Georgia will be looking for its first win in the SEC Tournament since 2021, having dropped three straight. Over those three losses, the Bulldogs have been outscored 23-4.