After starting the SEC Tournament on a high note with a win over LSU, Thursday’s 4-0 defeat at the hands of Ole Miss has Georgia playing the waiting game to see if it earns a spot in the NCAA Tournament's 64-team field.
The Bulldogs (31-25) remain confident.
Head coach Scott Stricklin, along with players Jonathan Cannon and Riley King, each expressed as much during their postgame Zoom press conference.
Although the Bulldogs certainly didn't play their best baseball over the past two days, Stricklin is counting on the SEC’s reputation and his team’s overall season being enough to earn a bid when the announcements are made Monday afternoon.
“We certainly haven’t played well the past two days, but it’s still the full body of work,” Stricklin said. “I’ll stand by my statement. If we’re the best baseball conference in the country, then we should be the best represented. The strength of schedule, the RPI, 14 wins in this league is a big deal.”
King agreed.
In fact, the senior outfielder acknowledged that once the team returns to action, they’ll prepare themselves assuming there will be more games to be played. The Bulldogs will practice over the weekend, then gather as a team on Monday to watch the teams announced.
“We’re going to get after it; we’re going to get ready to play post-season baseball,” King said. “We’ve got practice, we’re going to treat it just like we’re going to the tournament. That’s on our mind, that’s our goal, and we’re going to treat it like we’re going.”
Cannon, too, has his fingers crossed.
“It would have been nice to get at least one more,” he said. “It’s going to be a long way until Monday, but we’re hopeful we get a bid to the tournament.”
For the second straight day, Georgia’s bats were left in cold storage.
The Bulldog managed just five hits over a trio of Ole Miss pitchers, the latter of whom combined to strike out 14 batters. Starter Drew McDaniel went 6.2 innings, allowing just two hits with one walk and 11 strikeouts.
“We saw a lot of good pitching, but we really didn’t have a good approach overall,” Stricklin said. “We weren’t very good, no question about it. The three arms we saw, all pitched extremely well. I thought McDaniel pitched extremely well. We saw some really good arms, but we didn't have a good approach. They weren’t good enough to win yesterday and they weren't good enough to win today. I feel like we’ve got at least two more games to play, and we need to clean up offensively for sure.”
