No. 22 Georgia at No. 1 Tennessee

WHERE: Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Knoxville, Tenn.

WHEN: Thursday, 7 p.m., Friday, 5:30 p.m., Saturday, 1 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia - 32-16, 13-11; Tennessee – 43-6, 20-4

STARING PITCHERS: Thursday – Nolan Crisp (1-3, 5.17) vs TBA; Friday – Jonathan Cannon (9-1, 2.38) vs TBA; Saturday – Liam Sullivan (3-3, 4.91) vs TBA

TV/RADIO: Thursday (ESPNU), Friday (SEC Network), Saturday (SECNetwork+); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler, David Johnston)

With two weekends to go in the regular season, baseball teams in the Southeastern Conference are in a scrum to make sure they qualify for a spot in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

The Georgia Bulldogs are no exception.

Despite dropping their last two SEC series to LSU and Vanderbilt, Georgia (32-16, 13-11) and it’s No. 9 RPI currently sit comfortably when it comes to having a spot in the 64-team field.

With a strong finish, the Bulldogs could still put themselves in position to host one of the 16 regionals for the third time in five years.

However, that journey takes a challenging turn before Georgia closes out the regular season next week against Missouri.

A three-game series against top-ranked Tennessee (42-6, 20-4) stands in the way.

With the exception of the Volunteers, who have already clinched the SEC East, six other teams are within four games of each other in the overall standings, with Georgia currently tied with Auburn for the fifth-best overall record in the SEC.

“We just need to go play ball,” Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin said. “You can’t really worry about what they’re doing; you have to take care of yourself.”

Record-wise, this stands as the Bulldogs’ biggest challenge. Tennessee not only is the top-hitting team in the SEC (.304 with a league-leading 110 home runs), but the Vols’ team ERA (2.20) is over a point better than the next lowest ERA, Vanderbilt (3.25).

“They play with a lot of confidence—and they should, they’re really good. They play with a chip on their shoulder and a lot of energy,” Stricklin said. “What you can do is give that energy back, just have energy, have focus, and bring your best baseball with you. If we do that, then it’s going to be a competitive series and we’ll have a chance to go up there and win a series.”

After being denied a trip to last year’s NCAAs, Stricklin wants to take no chances. Even what most thought was a postseason-clinching victory over LSU in the SEC Tournament, Georgia’s 31-25 record was not good enough to get the Bulldogs in.

Stricklin was asked if last year’s disappointment caused him anxiety.

“Anxiety no; a chip on the shoulder, yeah,” he said. “I’ve been angry for over a year. It also really upsets me to go on the road a couple of weeks ago to a couple of teams that went ahead of us (Alabama and LSU) and then hear people say you probably should have gotten in ahead of us.”

Stricklin and the Bulldogs do not intend to put themselves in that position this time around.

“It makes you angry that a committee made that decision. But today, you kind of control your own destiny—kind of,” he said. “You put it in the hands of the committee and it’s out of your own hands, and that’s what happened last year. It was out of our hands. If you’re on the bubble, someone can say something negative about you. They can say something positive, but they can say something negative.

"For whatever reason, they went the other direction and that sat very badly with me and the kids that were here last year. We’re anxious to redeem ourselves and get back in there.”

If you follow college baseball even the slightest, then you’ve heard the buzz surrounding Tennessee pitcher Ben Joyce.

Two weeks ago, against Auburn, Joyce uncorked a pitch clocked at 105.5 miles per hour. Twenty-eight of his pitches were recorded at 103.

“None of our guys have seen a 104-mph fastball, there are only a few people on the planet who have ever seen that,” Stricklin said. “You’ve just got to get it ready. You know it’s coming, you’ve just got to be on time to hit that fastball.”

So, what do the players expect?

“Everyone they throw out there has great arms, great arms,” infielder Cole Tate said. “For us, we’ve just got to be ready to hit, get the pitch you want to hit, and don’t get behind in counts. We’re good at hitting fastballs. They throw a lot of fastballs, so we’ll see.”

Stricklin said he will stick with his weekend rotation of Nolan Crisp, Jonathan Cannon, and Liam Sullivan for the final two weeks of the regular season.

Cannon had been the Bulldogs’ Friday night starter until missing three weeks with soreness in his forearm.

Since coming back, the right-hander has been second in the rotation, where he will remain at least for the time being.

“(With Thursday’s start) we have to move him up a day anyway, so we’re not going to move him up two days,” Stricklin said. “If you want to jumble your rotation for the regionals, you can do that in the SEC Tournament. You don’t have to throw guys in order.”

With the regionals set for the first weekend of June, Stricklin acknowledged a change could possibly be made.

“We’ll just see where are, and whether we need to go in and win games in the SEC Tournament. Who knows, but hopefully we take care of business and be in position where we can pitch the rotation the way we want to, in order to set it up for the following weekend,” he said. “That’s the tough thing as a coach, and even for fans. The SEC Tournament is important, but the prize is Omaha. The prize is the national championship, and you’ve got to line yourself up. Coaches in the SEC, we love the SEC Tournament, but it’s a challenge, because it’s a grind, you’re beating each other up, and you’ve got postseason the next weekend.”

Sophomore pitcher Luke Wagner is improving after injuring his right shoulder diving to catch a bunt over the weekend against Vanderbilt.

According to Stricklin, the lefty will miss the final two weeks of the regular season. He’s expected to return the week of the NCAA Regionals.

“He’s doing better. He’s going to be out for the short term. We hope when we get regionals, he’ll be back. It’s his non-throwing shoulder,” Stricklin said. “His shoulder popped out, so anytime that happens you’ve got to strengthen it back up, so it doesn’t happen again. That front shoulder, even though you don’t throw with it, is very important for your throwing motion. So, that’s what we’re doing right now, strengthening it. He’s not in a sling, he’s doing his exercises, and he’s feeling a lot better. Best case scenario, the SEC Tournament, but we’re looking at the regional round before he can get back there.”

… Stricklin said infielder Cole Tate has completed his return-to-play protocol and is able to play without limitations against the Volunteers.

“We did the return-to-play protocol last week, six innings, seven innings, six innings at third base. We backed him up in the lineup a little bit so the strain on him,” Stricklin said. “He felt great. He had zero issues. Every time I took him out, he kind of looked at me funny.”