Tre Phelps’ debut for Georgia certainly qualified as a smashing success.

Not only did the Atlanta native hit .353 with 12 home runs and 40 RBI in just 42 games, Phelps earned second-team Freshman All-American honors and a spot on the SEC All-Freshman squad.

Many believe he’s just scratching the surface.

The website DIBaseball ranks the draft-eligible sophomore as the 12th-best college prospect in this summer’s Major League Draft.

His upside is as high as anyone on a team being predicted to be a serious contender for a spot in the College World Series. But while Phelps will be a huge part of whatever success the Bulldogs enjoy this spring; he’ll also be a bigger focus of other teams.

How he handles that aspect will determine the season he hopes to have.

Phelps says he’ll be ready.

“It’s all about just sticking to my approach and being confident. I mean, we do so much training, so much practicing, and I do so much on top of that,” Phelps said. “But it’s just about trusting myself, knowing that I'm going to do the best that I can no matter what's coming and what the count is."

Fortunately, Bulldog skipper Wes Johnson feels Phelps will have a lot of help.

This appears to be a deep Bulldog team. With teammates like Nolan McCarthy, Devin Obee, Slate Alford, and Kolby Branch, Georgia’s lineup could be one of the deepest in the SEC.

“Tre knows what he’s doing but it’s good that we've got Nolan and Kolby because he is going to have a bigger target on his back this year. It’s about how he deals with that now,” Johnson said. “Those are the things that I'm talking to Tre a lot about right now, just how to deal with that. But I think having these older guys around him is massive.”

It also helps that last season Phelps had the opportunity to watch the best ever to do it for the Bulldogs – Charlie Condon.

Although Phelps isn’t expected to match the numbers posted by Condon, there are lessons he learned just by watching the All-American go about his daily routine.

“Charlie was so poised. He was so poised and focused no matter what the situation was, whether it was with bases loaded in, and they had to pitch to him, or whether he was up with no outs, and they didn't want to put him on. They just walked him,” Phelps said. “He's so poised and focused no matter what the situation was; I definitely took that from Chuck.”

Phelps has several options for where he’ll play this year.

From third, second, and first to left field and right field, Johnson has the flexibility to use Phelps in more spots than most head coaches do.

“Yeah, me and Wes joke about that all the time. We like to say the position I play is batter's box,” Phelps said. “It's a plus that I can play a lot of positions at a plus level. Being able to go and practice and work at four or five different positions is actually fun, being able to take on that challenge. Just the excitement of being able to walk in and see what's going to be beside my name on the lineup that day is really what I look forward to this year.”