Sports Page Atlanta

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.

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…

Georgia and Georgia Tech will take battle once again on the ball field tonight at 7:00 PM EST. This time the game will be played at Turner Field. The Bulldogs are having a great season and last Sunday they clinched their 6th SEC title. The one bad thing for the Dawgs is that in-state rival Georgia Tech has already destroyed them twice this season. The first Yellow Jacket win was 9-4 at Tech’s Russ Chandler Stadium on April 9th then later they won again, this time in Athens at Foley Field by the score of 11-1 last Wednesday.

The 3rd matchup at Turner Field is dubbed ‘Spring Baseball Classic For Kids’ and proceeds from the game benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and its Brain and Spinal Cord Tumor Program. They have been playing this game every year since 2003. The Dawgs have won 4 of the 5 previous meetings at Turner. In 2004, a total of 28,836 people attended which was the 2nd largest crowd in NCAA baseball history at the time.

Senior Nick Montgomery will make the start for Georgia while Georgia Tech counters with freshman Deck McGuire. McGuire is 8-0 this season including 2 wins against the Bulldogs. This will be Montgomery’s first career start.

Georgia and Georgia Tech tangle again tonight at Turner Field. In the 5 previous times the two teams have played at Turner Field the team that with the higher ranked has never won…

2003 - unranked Georgia defeated #10 Georgia Tech 10-3

2004 - #15 Georgia Tech defeated #12 Georgia 12-5

2005 - unranked Georgia defeated #6 Georgia Tech 11-8

2006 - #16 Georgia defeated #15 Georgia Tech 5-4 in 11 innings

2007 - unranked Georgia defeated #24 Georgia Tech 10-7

*** CURRENT POLLS

Georgia Bulldogs - Baseball America #7

- Collegiate Baseball #8

- USA Today #8

- Baseball Writers #12

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets - Baseball America (unranked)

- Collegiate Baseball #25

- USA Today #25

- Baseball Writers #29

Both the Georgia Bulldogs and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets won their weekend series after posting victories on Sunday. Georgia continues their winning ways as they defeated the Ole Miss Rebels 11-4. Four Bulldogs hit home runs including Gordon Beckham who hit his NCAA leading 22nd in the game. He is now one away from tying the team season record and four away from tying the team career record. In the game, closer Joshua Fields gave up his first earned run of the season.

Georgia Tech on the other hand defeated #15 ranked Coastal Carolina 11-4 as the Yellow Jackets won their 2nd straight weekend series. First Baseman Tony Flagman hit his ACC leading 15th home run and Derek Dietrich hit his 14th.

These two local powers will square off against each other on Wednesday night in Athens at 7:00 pm.

I just took a look at the top home run hitters in NCAA baseball. These numbers are tabulated through games on April 28th, and I only went as far as the top 50. Here are the best home run hitters in Georgia, and where they rank on the NCAA list.

• Gordon Beckham, Georgia - 20 Home Runs (1)
• A.J. Wirnsberger, Georgia Southern - 16 Home Runs (T7)
• Chris Shehan, Georgia Southern - 14 Home Runs (T21)
• Derek Dietrich, Georgia Tech - 13 Home Runs (T31)
• Tony Plagman, Georgia Tech - 13 Home Runs (T31)
• Ty Wright, Georgia Southern - 13 Home Runs (T31)

Georgia Tech traveled down to Statesboro on Wednesday and the Yellow Jackets defeated Georgia Southern 14-8. Tech hit 4 home runs total as 11 of the 14 runs were scored via the long ball.

Luke Murton hit two blasts, while Derek Dietrek hit one and Brad Feltes provided the other. Feltes was extra special since it was a grand slam, the 3rd one he has hit this season.

Georgia Tech travels to Maryland this weekend to take on the Terrapins in an ACC showdown.

Georgia on the other hand extends their winning streak to five games as they won their 2nd straight in comeback fashion winning the game in the 9th inning. On Tuesday, the Bulldogs were down 8-1 in the 6th to East Tennessee State before winning the game when Gordon Beckham scored on a wild pitch. On Wednesday the Dawgs trailed once again, this time to Georgia State 4-0 in the 4th, but they roared back and won it again in the 9th courtesy of a 3-run home run by who else…. Gordon Beckham.

Beckham leads the nation with home runs with 17 and is batting .430 on the season. The junior shortstop was just named the “Midseason Player of the Year” by both Baseball America and rivals.com.

Georgia travels to Baton Rouge this weekend to take on LSU.

Georgia Tech pitcher Michael Hutts died on friday. The cause of the death is still unknown. The junior from Dunwoody, Georgia was 21. The game between Georgia Tech and Miami has been postponed.

Georgia Tech takes the first game of three against in-state rivals, the Georgia Bulldogs by defeating them 9-4 at Russ Chandler Stadium. The Yellow Jackets were led by designated hitter Luke Murton as he went 4-for-5 on the night with a home run and 3 runs batted in. Thomas Nichols also helped with 2 hits of his own and also drove in two and scored two.

Deck McGuire was solid as he improved to 5-0 on the season, pitching 5 and 2/3 innings strong allowing just 3 earned runs.

Ryan Peisel did most of the damage for the Bulldogs driving in two runs of his own.

Both teams resume to conference play this weekend as Georgia hosts Kentucky and Georgia Tech takes on top-ranked Miami.

Georgia and Georgia will face each other two more times during the season with the next time being on May 7th in Athens.

The state’s two big collegiate power houses will collide this Wednesday at Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta.

Georgia who is currently #16 in college baseball’s RPI list will tangle with #14 Georgia Tech on Wednesday night. Georgia is currently 20-10 and leading the SEC with a 9-3 conference mark, while Georgia Tech is 25-7 and is in 3rd in the ACC Coastal division with a 9-6 record. The Bulldogs have another game first as they take on Winthrop at home on Tuesday.

The two teams battle each other 3 times every year. One time at Tech (Wednesday), one time at Georgia (May 7th) and another time at Turner Field (May 13th).