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…

The Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 3-2 last night in front of 22,599 at Turner Field. To no surprise the man that sealed the deal for the Dawgs was closer Joshua Fields. The senior chalked up another record with the big save. Here are the records he owns and one more he can still get…

Most Saves in a season by a Georgia Bulldog:

• Joshua Fields - 16 in 2008 (got it last night)
• Joshua Fields - 15 in 2006
• Alex Barylak - 15 in 1993

Most Saves in a Career by a Georgia Bulldog:

• Joshua Fields - 39
• Cris Carpenter - 33
• Alex Barylak - 30

Most Saves in a Career by a SEC player:

• Joshua Fields - 39
• Cris Carpenter - 33
• Rick Greene (LSU) - 29
• Van Johnson (Mississippi State) - 29
• Finley Woodward (Auburn) - 29

Most Saves in a season by SEC player:

• Blake Taylor (South Carolina) - 21 in 2002
• Chad Blackwell (South Carolina) - 20 in 2004
• Lee Gronkiewicz (South Carolina) - 19 in 2001
• Finley Woodward (Auburn) - 19 in 1995
• Steven Register (Auburn) - 16 in 2003
• Joshua Fields - 16 in 2008

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

Courtesy of a thrilling 4-2 extra-inning comeback on Saturday and a slugfest win yesterday the Georgia Bulldogs clinched the Southeastern Conference title by winning two-of-three against Vanderbilt. Even with one series left to go (next week hosting Alabama) there is no way another team can catch the Dawgs.

This is the 6th ever SEC title for Georgia baseball including two under head coach David Perno. The Bulldogs are now 19-7-1 in conference play compared to their 11-19 SEC record from a year ago.

They should have had a 7th title back in 1987 as they had the best regular season mark in the conference, but rules back then gave it to the tournament champ (the next season they changed that rule.)

Georgia can’t lay up as they play arch-nemisis Georgia Tech on Tuesday and then home on Thursday, Friday and Saturday against the Crimson Tide. A good finish and a good SEC Tournament showing could get the Dawgs a very important top-8 seed which would allow them to host a regional and if they would advance a super-regional which would help them greatly on the quest for Omaha.

John Sickels over at Minor League Ball came up with a list of college hitters and pitchers to look out for in June’s amateur draft. To no one surprise Georgia’s Gordon Beckham and Joshua Fields made the list.

Here are the complete lists…

• Top College Hitters for the 2008 Draft
• Top College Pitchers for the 2008 Draft

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)

Yesterday in Baton Rouge the SEC leading Georgia Bulldogs tied LSU in a baseball game 10-10. As my friend Bob said, “tie?… tie?… there’s no tying in baseball”, after I laughed at the “A League of their Own” mockery, I realized yes there are ties in college baseball.

According to SEC travel curfew rule, an inning may not start after 4:00 pm local time. So at 4:11 pm central time the game ended 10-10 in 12 innings.

The last time Georgia had a tie in baseball was in 1999 against the LSU Tigers once again. That time it wasn’t as bad since the Bulldogs finished that season 25-30-1 and were overmatched by the Bayou Bengals who ended up 41-24-1.

According the known results, the Georgia Bulldogs have now had 22 ties in their history. Former head coach W.P. White (1921-33) coached 7 of them. In 1921 alone, the Dawgs had 3 ties including 2 against in-state rival Oglethorpe.