Sports Page Atlanta

After the series concluded on Monday, the members of media selected their all-region team.  Georgia Bulldog Matt Olson was the region’s most outstanding player.  The senior right fielder hit an incredible .692 (18-for-26) in the series with 6 rbi and 10 runs scored.

In all 6 Georgia Bulldogs and 2 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets made the team.  Here is the complete list from the region.

Catcher: Jason Haniger - Georgia Tech

First Base: Rich Poythress - Georgia

Second Base: Justin McClanahan - Louisville

Third Base: Ryan Peisel - Georgia

Shortstop: Gordon Beckham - Georgia

Outfield: Matt Olson - Georgia

Outfield: Charlie Blackmon - Georgia Tech

Outfield: Blake Bratcher - Lipscomb

Designated Hitter: Bryce Masssanari - Georgia

Pitcher: Nick Montgomery - Georgia

Pitcher: Rex Brothers - Lipscomb

Most Outstanding Player:  Matt Olson - Georgia

It all comes down to tonight in Athens, Georgia.  The winner between Georgia and Georgia Tech will face NC State in the Super Regionals next week.

The Bulldogs and the Yellow Jackets have now faced each other 4 times this season.  The first two the Jackets had easy times and the second two the Dawgs came up on top.

As you can see the stats are as different as night and day…

First 2 games -                      Georgia Tech                Georgia

                            runs                    20                               5

                            hits                      31                               12

                   extra base hits            10                               3

                        home runs                4                               0

                           wins                       2                                 0

Second 2 games -                    Georgia Tech                    Georgia

                          runs                      2                                    11

                          hits                        9                                    23

                   extra base hits           1                                       9

                        home runs             0                                      4

                             wins                   0                                      2

Like I said yesterday, Georgia had good karma and was going to win. They did it with a monster 7-run 7th inning including a 3-run blast by Gordon Beckham. The All-American now has 49 in his career and 24 this season.

The 24 is a record by a Georgia Bulldog. Two other players have hit 23 in a season. Andy Osbolt did it in 1998 and Josh Morris did it a few years back in 2006.

In case you were wondering the record for most home runs in a season by a Georgia Tech player is 25 by Anthony Maisano back in 1990.

Good News for Georgia and Georgia Tech baseball fans.  I know Bulldog fans you are saying, why is it good news when the Dawgs lost yesterday? well…

Georgia is 11-0 in the postseason in elimination games at Foley Field.  Obviously that stat has to end sometime, but hopefully not today as they take on Louisville at 3:00 pm.  Pitching for the Bulldogs is Trevor Holder.  The 2nd-team All-SEC pitcher hasn’t pitched in 2 weeks since injuring his shoulder against Alabama.  The junior right-hander is 2-0 with a 0.87 in 10 1/3 career NCAA postseason innings.

Georgia Tech is looking a lot better right now as they defeated those Cardinals mentioned above.  Charlie Blackmon was one of the stars yesterday.  As he went 3-4 with 2 rbi and a run scored.  He also stole 2 more bases to increase his season total to 25.

The Yellow Jackets have now won 15 regional game ones.  8 of those previous 14 games they went on to win the region.  An 8-6 record doesn’t look super, but those 8 wins have all happened in their last 9 chances.  The first 5 times they have won game one of a regional they ended up not winning the region. 

Georgia and Georgia Tech begin their quest for Omaha today as the Bulldogs take on Lipscomb at 3:00 pm et and the Yellow Jackets tangle with Louisville at approximately 7:00 pm et.

Both teams have had very good seasons and have improved on two of the more standout categories such power and speed.

                                          games                 home runs              stolen bases

Georgia Tech (2007)      57                           50                              65

Georgia Tech (2008)      58                           90                              79

Georgia (2007)                 56                          42                              56

Georgia (2008)                 57                           77                              65

Yesterday, I mentioned that Georgia and Georgia Tech both made the NCAA Regionals this season, in fact they are in the same foursome.

Here is a little breakdown of how each team has done in the NCAA Postseason in their school’s history…

                                                     UGA                GT

overall record                          35-22             54-42

at home                                     15-5               21-13

regional champs                           5                    6

super regional champs                3                    2

college world series record        6-9                4-5

ncaa championships                     1                    0

The Bulldogs won their championship in 1990 by defeating Oklahoma State 2-1.  Freshman and Athens native Stan Payne got the win while future major leaguer Dave Fleming got the save.

In 1994, the state of Georgia collided again with the Sooner State.  This time Oklahoma won as they defeated Georgia Tech 13-5.  In that game future MLB stars Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek belted home runs.

It was announced that Georgia and Georgia Tech will be in the same regional in this year’s NCAA Baseball Tournament.  The other two teams will be Louisville and Lipscomb.  All the games will be played in Athens, Georgia starting on Friday.

The two in-state teams have played against each other 6 times in the NCAA Tournament, including five times this decade alone.  Five times the game has been played at Tech’s Russ Chandler Stadium and one time at Georgia’s Foley Field.  The Bulldogs have a 4-2 advantage in these games.

No matter if it was a regional or super regional the winner of the Georgia and Georgia Tech game in that tournament would eventually play in the College World Series.

1987 at Georgia Tech (Northeast Regional): Bulldogs won 5-1

2001 at Georgia (Athens Regional): Bulldogs won 13-5

2002 at Georgia Tech (Atlanta Regional): Yellow Jackets won both meetings 3-0 and 8-7

2004 at Georgia Tech (Atlanta Super Regional): Bulldogs won both meetings 7-5 and 5-3

Both the SEC and ACC Tournaments start on Wednesday and both local teams need some big wins this week.  Georgia is most likely hosting a regional, but needs to do well in the SEC’s to be a top-8 seed guareenting home field advantage if they win the regional.  Georgia Tech needs some wins to get good placing in the regional and if the win the ACC, maybe they could host a regional.

The Bulldogs are the number one seed in Birmingham this week and will be playing Ole Miss first at 6:00 pm et (the game will be much later, the times will be pushed back). 

Here is how Georgia did against the teams in the tourney this season and how they fared against them all-time in the SEC Tournament…

Ole Miss: 2-1 this season (first meeting in SEC tournament)

Alabama: 1-2 (1-1)

Kentucky: 3-0 (3-2)

Florida: 1-2 (7-4)

South Carolina: 3-0 (2-1)

LSU: 2-0-1 (2-7)

Vanderbilt: 2-1 (1-5)

— the Dawgs are a combined 23-32 in the SEC Tournament with 0 titles and 3 2nd place finishes (1985, 1986 and 1989)

Georgia Tech is the 5th seed and will play NC State in Jacksonville early Wednesday morning.

Here is how the Yellow Jackets have fared against teams in the ACC Tourney…

NC State: did not face them this season (10-11 in ACC Tourney)

Miami: 0-3 (2-0)

Clemson: 2-1 (9-13)

Florida State: 0-3 (5-6)

Wake Forest: 2-1 (9-4)

North Carolina: 1-2 (11-3)

Virginia: 2-1 (6-3)

— Georgia Tech is 64-44 all-time in the ACC Tournament and has won it all 7 times.  The Jackets won 4 straight from 1985 to 1988 under current Miami head coach Jim Morris, but the last 3 were all under current skipper Danny Hall when he won it all in 2000, 2003 and 2005.

Former Georgia Tech standout Jason Varitek was the lucky one last night as he caught Jon Lester’s no-hitter. It was the 4th time he has caught a no-hitter. The other ones were: Hideo Nomo in 2001, Derek Lowe in 2002, Clay Buchholz in 2007 and Lester). The 4 broke a record held by Yogi Berra, Roy Campenella, Alan Ashby and Ray Schalk.

The last former Georgia Bulldog catcher to catch a no-hitter in the majors was Robby Hammock, who caught Randy Johnson’s no-no against the Braves on May 18, 2004.

For the first time ever the SEC Player of the Year, SEC Pitcher of the Year, SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year and SEC Coach of the Year were all given to student-athletes from the same school.

The University of Georgia were the lucky ones to pick up that hardware. Gordon Beckham won the SEC Player of the Year as well as the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year Award. Joshua Fields won the SEC Pitcher of the Year and Head Coach David Perno won his 2nd ever SEC Coach of the Year Award after winning it in 2004 as well.

Beckham, Fields and catcher Bryce Massanari all won first team honors. 2nd team honors went pitchers Trevor Holder and Stephen Dodson.

First baseman Rich Poythress was first team All-Defense while no Bulldog made the freshman team.

Here is a complete list of all the SEC winners…

No Georgia Tech player made first team All-ACC, but they had a lot of Yellow Jackets representing the second team.

Third Baseman Brad Feltes, Pitcher David Duncan, Outfielder Charlie Blackmon and shortstop Derek Dietrich were all winners in that category.

Florida State’s Buster Posey was named ACC Player of the Year. He is from Leesburg, Georgia. I think he wished he went to either Georgia or Georgia Tech (that way I would have written more about him, oh well, congrats).

Here is a complete list of all the ACC winners…