Is There a Baseball NIT?

No other way around it.

I don't have any analysis other than to say we have had more hits and gotten more opportunities than we have allowed, yet we are at .500 on the season.  Absent every single team that is "supposed" to win their conference tourneys doing so, and some generous selection day decisions, the Diamond Dawgs are done for the season.  

It will be an off season of serious introspection in the big office at Butts-Mehre. There are some family circumstances David Perno is dealing with, and has been for a bit. I am not as sold on it being the end for Perno as T. Kyle King is, but he has been right about some other decisions McGarity has made, so I wouldn't bet against him.

TD

Not happening-McGarity Confirms Perno Staying (Gentry Estes)

It Must Have Been Tuesday in Hoover

So the Diamond Dawgs must have lost their opening round SEC tournament game. Dawgs lose opening to Vandy 4-1.  I'd love to say there is one reason for it, but other than one stretch in the third inning, the Dawgs did all they had to defensively to win.  Offensively, Vandy got the same number of hits, but scored three more runs.  Pretty much a microcosm of the season: Play good, but not great, and lose to a team they played evenly with.

Now, the Dawgs find themselves in exactly the same situation as last season, having lost to Vandy in the Tuesday game and needing to play deep into the weekend to play next week. Going into the SEC tourney, Georgia needed to win a couple last year to not have to sweat too much on selection day.  I still think a win over South Carolina and a win over Florida will probably get the Dawgs in, just like last year.  Both of those programs were very good last year.  Both are very good this year. If it is Vandy and one of those other teams we beat to play until Saturday, I don't know.  Being one or two games over .500 and making the NCAA regionals requires pretty strong late season statement wins. Beating Vandy won't fill that requirement.

By no means is it a lost cause. Unless we start getting hits when we need to, however, this season will end in Hoover instead of in an exciting regional final somewhere.

TD

At Least We Made the SEC Tournament

While Georgia Baseball was a 'half game or so' out of fifth or sixth place, being eighth seed isn't a good place to be.  Basically, they'll have to beat Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt that nearly ended with a losing season record, but is now seeded fifth due to a strong late season run that began with two late game wins over Georgia in late March, then South Carolina, then Florida just to have a shot of getting to the NCAA regional this year.

I'll submit this with out any comment other than to say we can still do it.  We've played good enough against all of the teams in the conference that anything can go down. We've also played poorly enough that we could lose to Vandy and Auburn and be done by Wednesday afternoon.

Either way, we still have to win at lest three games in a row to feel comfortable about making the tournament.

TD

College Baseball is a Hitters League

And Georgia needs some hitters.  Actually, we need some hitting instruction.

After watching the carnage that was the mid-week Clemson game on Tuesday, it sure seems like Georgia is still approaching hitting like it is 2010. Not to bore you with details, but recently major changes occurred in regulations covering bats in college baseball. It looks like Georgia's players are still trying to hit home runs on every at bat. With the new bats, that means we have a lot of fly-outs and line drives caught by outfielders.

That alone isn't the only source of issues. We have started the weird trend of committing errors in bunches and at key times of the game (see 2010). Going into last weekend's series at Vandy, we had only committed 19 errors. Now we stand at 25, with two in the Vandy series leading to heartbreaking losses to a team that likely won't make the SEC tourney.  That stuff can't happen with the SEC as loaded as it is.

The good news is that our weekend pitching has potential. It needs better hitting to prevent the inevitable defensive blow up from turning a win into a loss. Also, we can't lose any more series to the dregs of the conference. That is a recipe for playing from the 9 or 10 seed in Hoover. Or worse yet, not making it.

TD

In Other News

Men's Golf and baseball just got a little less deep:

• Closer Tyler Maloof will be out for at least a month with a muscle strain in his arm. Maloof tied the single season save record last year, but had a big ERA. We were looking to have him get stronger in close situations. Now we might not have him available until well into the SEC schedule. Blake Dieterich and Bryan Benzor are the top candidates to get the ball for now.
• Bryden Macpherson has decided to withdraw from school and take up golf as a profession. Macpherson qualified for The Masters with a win in last year's British Amateur Open. Macpherson was the SEC Freshman of the year and a big part of our National Championship runner up finish last year. I expect to hear some muffled 'Go Dawgs' when he tees it up in Augusta.

TD