No. 13 Vanderbilt at No. 18 Georgia

WHERE: Foley Field

WHEN: Friday 6 p.m., Saturday 2 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia – 32-12, 10-11; Vanderbilt – 32-13, 11-10

STARTING PITCHERS: Friday – RH Leighton Finley (3-1, 5.10) vs RH Bryce Cunningham (6-2, 3.98); Saturday – LH Charlie Goldstein (4-1, 4.01) vs LH Carter Holton (6-2, 4.37); Sunday – TBA vs TBA

TV/RADIO: SEC Network+ (Matt Stewart and Jason Jacobs); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler and David Johnston).

When Wes Johnson says he’s never seen it before, you take notice.

Such is the case with senior Corey Collins, who has reached base nine straight times without the benefit of a hit.

“I’ve never seen that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it at the big-league level. He has tremendous strike zone discipline. He works on it. It doesn’t shock me. When somebody is really good at something they work on it a lot, and he works on that a lot,” Johnson said. “He takes pride in holding his ground when he’s in there, and he doesn’t move. So, he puts a lot of pressure, and I think it helps that he hits in front of Charlie (Condon).”

In Saturday’s 5-4 win at Texas A&M, Collins walked once and was hit by pitches three times. During Georgia’s 9-3 win at Kennesaw State, Collins walked four times and was hit by a pitch.

For those counting, Collins’ 20 hit-by-pitches lead the SEC, four more than Missouri’s Trevor Austin and Alabama’s Gage Miller.

“I’ve just been trying to fight in the box and just try to get on base for the guys behind me. Just trying to get on base for Condon, and he hit a home run,” Collins said of his unusual streak. “That’s my job to start the game, get on in front for the guys behind me, and set the table. If I don’t get my pitches to hit early in the count, then I’m not going to go. If I get two strikes, it’s fight, fight, fight until I get on base.”

With three weekends to go, Georgia is five SEC victories away from the magic number of 15 conference wins, which would assure the Bulldogs a return trip to the NCAA Tournament.

“We’re in a good spot. In this league, we’ve got nine left. Everybody knows the numbers. I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stats. People will text me, shoot me over. But we know this: 15 wins is pretty much your golden ticket,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of metrics out there that say 13 gets you in there, but I’m not going to look at those things. I don’t have our guys look at those things. The most important thing is Friday night, the first pitch against Vanderbilt.”

After this weekend’s series with Vanderbilt, the Bulldogs travel to South Carolina before wrapping up conference play against Florida.

“Historically, if you look, you win 15 games in this league, that has a 98 percent chance of making the NCAA Tournament,” Johnson said. “I think the other stat I saw was 14 (wins) was 71 (percent) roughly, and 13 (wins) was at 42 (percent). The only reason I think the 13 is getting some play this year is because the league RPI is higher than I’ve ever seen it.”

Currently, six SEC teams have RPIs in the top 10 nationally. Georgia is currently No. 9, just ahead of South Carolina which is sitting at No. 10.

With a strong finish, there’s a chance the Bulldogs could still host.

Last year, SEC teams hosted eight of the 16 NCAA regionals.

“It would be awesome to play here, obviously. The goal every year is to make the tournament, and the second goal is to host and hopefully get to Omaha,” Johnson said. “We’re in that spot, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Charlie Goldstein will return to the starting rotation on Saturday after coming out of the bullpen each of the previous two weekends.

Goldstein (4-1, 4.01) missed three weekends from late March to mid-April, after dealing with arm fatigue.

He’ll be opposed by left-hander Carter Holton (6-2, 4.37).

Leighton Finley will start Friday’s 6 p.m. opener. Sunday’s finale is TBD for both teams.

“They’re a stock Vanderbilt, Tim Corbin team,” Johnson said. “They’re built around power pitching, and they’ve got an offense that can do a lot of different things. They can hit homers, steal bases, bunt, hit, and run, and very dynamic offense.”

Johnson said the key for his offense will be simple.

“When you look, strike zone discipline is going to be huge. When guys have had to come in the strike zone, their pitchers, teams have hit them a little bit,” Johnson said. “When the chases open up, their guys have run through, and they’ve got the kind of stuff that can make you chase. If we can limit that, we’ll put ourselves in a good position.”

On how Charlie Condon (.456-30-63) has handled all the attention: “I’ve never seen anything like it on the field, and I’ve been around some special players. Obviously, I’m staying around the collegiate level when I’m giving these assessments, but I’ve never seen anyone handle it off the field as gracefully as he has this year. What he’s done is just unbelievable. I haven’t seen anything like it.”

On the biggest steps taken by his team: “I think our concentration level. Being able to focus and concentrate for nine innings is really hard to do. Good teams and good players are able to do that. We’ve got talent. Every team in our league has got talent. You start looking at some of the better teams in the history of this league, and they’re not giving away at-bats. Every pitch off the mound matters, and that’s hard. That’s focus and concentration, and I’ve really seen us grow in that area.”

On the improvements the Bulldogs still need to make: “Need to continue to get better defensively, we need to continue getting a lot better on the mound. Our strike percentage is moving in the right direction. It’s executing those quote-unquote, put-away pitches, the 1-2, 2-2s. We’ve got to continue getting a lot better at that, and believe it or not, even though we’re putting up some good numbers, we’re leaving too many runners on base. So, understanding some situational hitting with some different guys is where we’ve got to really improve.”