When NC State deposited two Trevor Holder pitches over the fence in the top of the 3rd inning in Friday’s opening game of the Athens Super Regional, I had a flashback to the opening game of the 2006 Athens Super Regional. South Carolina hit five consecutive home runs in the second inning and jumped out to a 9-0 lead on the host Bulldogs. In the 2008 opener, three straight Wolfpack batters – including the #9 batter – hit deep shots, and two found their way out of the park. It wasn’t looking good for Holder who recently struggled with shoulder problems and had a so-so regional.

But the right-handed junior wasn’t about to allow a repeat of 2006. On the day he found out that he was drafted in the 10th round of the MLB Draft by the Florida Marlins, Holder buckled down, got out of the 3rd, and went another 5 2/3 innings without allowing another earned run. The Bulldogs quickly answered those two runs and went on to a convincing 11-4 win over the Wolfpack. Holder ran out of gas just one out away from his first complete game after giving up 7 hits, 2 runs, and recording 5 strikeouts. Justin Earls came in to record the final out.

Prior to Friday’s game, the Wolfpack hadn’t allowed more than ten runs in a game since a March 14th loss to Miami. Starter Clayton Shunick was dominant at times, but Georgia took advantage of two weak innings to do their damage. The Bulldogs scored four times with two outs in the bottom of the 3rd, and they chased Shunick with five more runs in the 6th. Matt Olson and Gordon Beckham got the Dawgs going with key two-out hits in the 3rd, but the bottom of the order once again was a big part of the story. Lyle Allen, Miles Starr, and Joey Lewis combined for 5 RBI including a two-run homer by Lewis.

That 2006 Super Regional had a lesson: even if you get your tail kicked, you start out 0-0 in the next game. Georgia bounced back that year to win two straight over the Gamecocks and advance to Omaha. Friday’s opening win by Georgia puts them in great shape just one win away from the CWS, but they’re not there yet. The good news for the Bulldogs is that they have everything going for them right now – they’ll have a fresh bullpen, a partisan crowd, and the bats show no signs of cooling off.

As expected, Gordon Beckham and Josh Fields were taken early in the first round of Thursday’s Major League Baseball draft.

• Beckham was drafted 8th overall by the Chicago White Sox.
• Fields improved on his second-round selection of a year ago by being selected 20th overall by the Seattle Mariners. Atlanta’s loss is Seattle’s gain.

With their futures certain now, here’s hoping that these Bulldog stars can end their college careers on top.

UPDATE: Georgia football signee Xavier Avery was selected 50th overall by the Baltimore Orioles. According to his father, Avery is baseball all the way. Some fans I’ve read have been griping that Avery’s scholarship could have gone to someone else, but I think the coaches knew and expected that Avery was going to go the baseball route and factored that into the numbers for this signing class. His decision actually clears up a situation where Georgia might have been over the football scholarship limit.

While it’s serious news that Jeremy Lomax was arrested on speeding and concealed weapons charges, it is encouraging to see him step up and accept his fault in the incident.

Most fans assume a suspension, but alcohol-related incidents are the only ones for which a suspension is mandated. Depending on Mark Richt’s discretion and the eventual outcome of the charges, Lomax’s discipline could range anywhere from a multiple-game suspension to “internal” discipline such as additional running.

This tidbit is also encouraging: when potential starters are driving 1991 Chevy Caprices around town, you can be pretty certain that the NCAA won’t be moving their Tuscaloosa branch office to Athens any time soon.

The company whose name is on the stadium which hosts the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party is being bought out.

I was reading this post at CFR that was, at face value, just another innocent-enough post about the playoff discussion ("jeez – he’s about to make another playoff post," I hear you say). One sentence in particular took me off on a tangent.

The Plus One is effectively the gateway to — shudder — a real playoff in college football.

I’m probably (almost certainly) not the first to raise this question, but is the "plus one" the point of no return or did we already pass the playoff event horizon with the introduction of the BCS?

We hold the regular season sacred, but why is the national champion not named immediately after the regular season? That’s not a ridiculous question; until 1968 the final polls were released before the bowls. The interim between 1968 and 1998 moved the focus of the national title to the bowls, but there was still very little formal structure in terms of determining a consensus champion. The Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance attempted to put some framework around the postseason, but the introduction of the BCS in 1998 was the biggest shift to create a single championship game between the nation’s two best teams.

What is the BCS, then, if not the mechanism behind a two-team playoff? Is the current discussion a question of playoffs vs. BCS, or does it all just boil down to resistance against the "bracket creep" of expanding our current two-team playoff to four teams or more?

I don’t ask these questions as gotchas for those who consider themselves playoff opponents. Truth is, there aren’t only two sides on which to come down on this topic. Unless you’re for a return to the ’80s-era bowl free-for-all or a wide-open 64-team tournament, there’s a ton of middle ground with plenty of tradeoffs to talk about. But asking "how big do we want our playoff to be" versus "do we want a playoff at all" are two very different questions, and the time to have that discussion might have been ten years ago.

By now you know that Georgia’s SEC opener against South Carolina will be at 3:30 on CBS. It will be the nation’s first look at this title contender, and I couldn’t think of a better network on which to make our national debut.

It’s not that Georgia hasn’t had significant wins on other networks. The Sugar Bowl destruction of Hawaii was on FOX, and the overtime defeat of Alabama was on ESPN. But FOX managed to turn a dominant bowl win into a trudging and tedious broadcast that just…wouldn’t…end. ESPN’s production of the Alabama game turned on Mike Patrick’s bizarre fascination with Britney Spears.

But great games on CBS can be transcendent. From the South Carolina and Auburn games in 2002 to the LSU game in 2004 to the Florida and Auburn games last season, appearing on the Canine Broadcasting System has been great for the team. They haven’t always won on CBS, but we’re assured of a first-rate production and broadcast team. While other networks flounder when a close game turns into a rout, the broadcast booth becomes one big party at CBS.

Pendulum Swings Back

Deserved or not, the SEC tied its own record with nine teams in the 2008 NCAA Baseball Tournament. While there is plenty to back up the SEC, I think the reason for nine teams is much simpler: the SEC received only five bids last year – a result that was at least as controversial, if not more, than this year’s nine bids. This year it was the Pac-10 who got five teams in, and defending champ Oregon State was a casualty of that fact. We’ll see if the committee takes that into account next year.

Good News

Finally, it’s always a little weird to get personal with someone whom you "know" only through bits and bytes, but it’s nothing but fantastic news that Doug’s father is doing well. It’s an incredibly jarring experience when the men we hold up have a brush with their own mortality. Father’s Day will have a little more meaning than usual this year.

Georgia will welcome Raleigh Regional winner North Carolina State to Athens this weekend for a best two-of-three series for the right to advance to Omaha and the College World Series.  Here’s the schedule; some warm afternoon games are ahead.

Athens Super Regional Schedule

Friday – Noon on ESPN
Saturday – Noon on ESPN2
Sunday – 4 p.m. (if necessary) on ESPN

Ticket Information

All-Session tickets to attend the NCAA Baseball Athens Super Regional, featuring Georgia and North Carolina State, will go on sale online via www.georgiadogs.com, at the Athletic Association Ticket Office window or by calling 1-877-542-1231 (toll free) beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 3.

All-Session Reserved tickets are $40 with the all-session general admission price set at $30. Both All-Session ticket packages include a ticket to all Athens Super Regional games including Game 3 if necessary and provide fans with a discount off the individual game ticket prices.

All tickets ordered for the Super Regional will be distributed via Will-Call. Patrons may claim their tickets prior to the regional from the Athletic Association Ticket Office beginning on Thursday, June 5 at 9:00 a.m. Regional tickets will also be available for pickup at the Foley Field ticket windows each day of the Super Regional.

For more information, visit www.georgiadogs.com and click on the link for tickets or call the Ticket Office at 1-877-542-1231. Visa, Mastercard and Cash are all accepted forms of payment.

“Can anybody f#@*ing play out here?”
– Danny Hall, during Monday’s 7th inning mound visit

Thoroughly unimpressed with the accomplishment of the Georgia basketball team, the Georgia baseball team demonstrated this weekend just how easy it is to win 4 games in 3 days.  Georgia completed the comeback by winning four straight games through the loser’s bracket, and they finished off Georgia Tech 18-6 in Monday night’s regional championship game.  Georgia’s hot bats were aided by six Tech errors, and Bulldog pitching allowed just one run after surrendering five to the Yellow Jackets in the bottom of the first inning.

With a loss already against them and drifting dead in the water against Louisville, the Diamond Dawgs shed a May malaise with one swing of Gordon Beckham’s bat.  In the 30 innings since that pivotal 7th inning against Louisville, Georgia has scored 47 runs.  They won the final three games of the regional by a combined 40-9 margin. 

Matt Olson had already cemented his place among the great Tech beaters, but the Athens Regional MVP one-upped himself with a freakish 18-26 (.692) batting performance over the weekend.  That total included seven hits over two elimination games against Georgia Tech.  It says something about Olson’s weekend that Bryce Massanari, in the middle of a 13-game hitting streak, was overshadowed.

As much as I can go on about the hitting, the story of the weekend had to be Georgia’s pitching depth coming through.  Regular starters Stephen Dodson and Trevor Holder struggled on Friday and Saturday.  Even reliable closer John Fields wasn’t himself on Saturday.  But beginning with Dean Weaver’s solid middle relief against Louisville, the pitching settled down.  Nathan Moreau and Justin Earls followed it up with strong showings against Lipscomb.  Nick Montgomery’s complete game shutout of Georgia Tech in Sunday’s nightcap was the outstanding performance of the regional. 

Montgomery’s outing on Sunday let Georgia get to Monday’s championship with plenty of arms on the bench, and they would need most of them.  Starter Justin Grimm failed to record an out during a disastrous first inning that saw Tech turn a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 lead.  Alex McRee quickly settled things down, and he would hold Tech at bay allowing just a single unearned run in the 4th.  Weaver was brought in for the 5th, but he took a wicked shot off his pitching arm and had to leave the game after facing just one batter.  His condition and availability for the rest of the season is unknown. 

With Weaver out the Dawgs turned to Will Harvil, and Harvil became the latest Bulldog to make the most of his opportunity. Harvil allowed no runs and just three hits over four innings while the Bulldog offense built its lead.  Josh Fields finished the job in the 9th, but the issue was no longer in doubt then.  After the first inning it looked as if we were in for a high-scoring shootout, but Georgia’s middle relief of McRee and Harvil made sure that the scoring was one-sided.

Naturally a win like this over Georgia’s rival carries added significance.  The season series, led by Tech after the regular season, now finishes 3-2 in Georgia’s favor.  It’s the third time this decade that Georgia has ended Tech’s postseason.  Even bigger, the Dawgs are now 15-0 in elimination games at Foley Field. 

With another emotional regional and a draining march of five games in four days, Georgia will have to come back to earth quickly.  N.C. State will be coming to Athens for the Super Regional this weekend, and they are as good as any team Georgia faced during the regional.  The Wolfpack were 18-11 in the nation’s toughest conference, and they are 41-20 overall.  N.C. State swept through their Raleigh Regional with a 3-0 record and eliminated South Carolina to advance to the Super Regional.

I guess you take your motivation where you can get it, but this fashion-based incentive used by the Lipscomb baseball team would make Billy Johnson proud:

White shoes theory: One of the questions from the media at the post-game press conference dealt with the Bisons white baseball shoes. It marked the first time the team had ever worn white shoes in a game, but it won’t be the last.

“Our players wanted to wear white shoes all year long,” Forehand said. “I told them I didn’t like white shoes and we weren’t going to do it.

“It started last year. I made a promise that if they made it to a regional they could wear white shoes. I guess we are going to keep wearing them.”

It worked – the Bisons upset top-seeded Georgia 10-7 in the opening game of yesterday’s Athens regional.

Official footwear supplier of Lipscomb baseball

A day after the coaches voted 9-3 to recommend an early signing day for college football, the SEC athletic directors decided not to endorse the plan and will not send it on to the NCAA. The key sticking point seems to be the official visit: the plan would make those taking official visits ineligible to sign early, but the athletic directors did not want to diminish the importance of the official visit.

The Athens regional kicks off today with Georgia playing Lipscomb at 3:00. It should be a wild weekend: three of the four teams made the trip to Omaha in their last postseason appearance. Here’s a link dump of news and info:

Media

Television: CSS

Radio: 960 AM in Athens. 91.1 PM in Atlanta will have at least the Tech broadcast.

Online: Free audio and live stats here.

News

• GeorgiaDogs.com Regional Central
• AJC regional notebook: Dawgs rested, healthy, and haven’t scouted anyone
• ABH: Four teams, one dream. A brief profile of the participants.
• ABH: Regional notebook. Roger Willams’ return, Fields and Beckham honored, Tech dealing with tragedy
• ABH: A great look back at the 2001, 2004, and 2006 postseasons with quotes from some of the players.

Tickets

Single game tickets to attend the NCAA Baseball Athens Regional will go on sale starting at 1:00 p.m. Friday, May 30 at Foley Field. Single game ticket sales locations will be set up in the Foley Field Plaza, along the third base side on Rutherford Street and at the entrance to right field bleachers on Pinecrest Street.

Reserved Seat tickets are $12 and general admission tickets are $10.

Single game tickets will also go on sale at the Foley Field ticket locations beginning two hours before the first game each day.

Georgia fans are losing a valuable online resource. David Ching will be moving to the Auburn beat.

The value of Ching’s blog wasn’t that it re-hashed what could be found on any newspaper’s site. He didn’t bring a stunning command of Georgia’s tradition and history or some amazing insight into the game of football. He had the commodity that separates pros from the amateurs – access. What made his blog unique was that he shared that access with us – he brought you inside, walked you around the practice field, and gave you the impressions and nuggets that would never make in the paper but were so important for fans. Just read the comments to his post breaking this news to understand the connection.

The guys running the online-only subscription sites know all about that. Patterson, Legge, Dasher, and the others who have worked with them found out quickly that interaction with their subscriber base was oxygen for their sites. Those subscribers expected more than you got from a newspaper, and those sites delivered in part with technology and multimedia but also by using their access as a jumping-off point to drive discussion, encourage feedback, and guide future content.

One thing Ching demonstrated was how easy it was for a relatively obscure newcomer to build a personal brand. I would wager that only guys like Towers, Strickland, and Kendall who have been around the beat much longer or write for the major papers have higher name recognition among the hardcore online Georgia fans. Ching’s blog was as reliable a resource as most newspaper sites, and I admit to reading his blog much more often than his online articles at the paper’s site.

Sorry if this reads like an obituary. David should know that his site was appreciated and will be missed by Georgia fans, and the few Auburn fans who can read will quickly find him as useful of a resource as we did.

Ambitious journalists covering Georgia should realize that there is a vacuum out there now. Hopefully someone will step in to fill it this fall. With many in traditional media struggling to figure things out, it’s great to see those who jump in with both feet, and it’s unfortunate when we see one of them move on.

I’ve written before about an early signing period for college football. It’s not that it’s an awful idea or would ruin college football, but something about the motivation has always seemed a little questionable to me. I’m not surprised that the SEC coaches have voted to push the idea forward, but the coverage of this news I’ve read so far doesn’t do much to diminish my primary concern with the early signing period: we tend to hear a lot more about why this is great for the coaches and college programs than we do about benefits for the student-athlete.

That said, I don’t have much of a problem with the idea as endorsed by the SEC coaches. But at the same time, it really doesn’t address many of the reasons why people claim we need an early signing period. The key detail in the SEC proposal is that prospects would only be eligible to sign early if they don’t take official visits.

Think about what that condition implies. Aside from the "been a fan all my life" prospects who jump on their dream offer, why would a prospect want to forgo the official visit even if they only visit their chosen school?

To the kind of prospect whose commitment is that solid, it doesn’t matter when signing day is. The kid isn’t going anywhere and really isn’t receptive to other recruiting overtures because his intent is obvious. So the program has no need to "babysit" such a prospect during the final months of the recruiting process, and there isn’t much pressure or attention put on someone who makes his plans crystal clear in March or whenever he gets his dream offer.

The prospects for whom recruiting pressure, endless phone calls, and media attention are unpleasant realities are the undecided. These are exactly the prospects who should be taking their visits, thinking things over, and shouldn’t be rushed into "getting it over with." Once they do start taking visits, the SEC plan wouldn’t allow the high-profile undecided prospect to sign early anyway.

Who is speaking up for the student-athlete in this discussion? We’re getting no end of woe-is-us stories from the coaches, but forgive me if I don’t melt because some guy whose salary is pushing seven figures has to make a few extra phone calls. This is the one time in the process where the student-athlete holds a bit of the upper hand and when changing his mind won’t come with a substantial penalty. You can’t say that for the job-hopping coaches.

Tony Barnhart writes, "The rationale for the rule is that more and more players are committing early and would like to sign and avoid the final six weeks of recruiting." They would? How do we know? Barnhart had plenty of quotes supporting the coaches’ positions, but who is carrying the torch for the prospects claiming that they "would like to sign and avoid the final six weeks of recruiting?"

ESPN’s Chris Low makes a bit of a reach when he discusses the coaches’ motivations for the vote. (Emphasis added.)

One of the reasons most of the SEC coaches favor an early signing period is because so many prospects commit early and then hold everybody hostage as they look around in January and February.

That’s overstating it just a little, isn’t it? I admit to being familiar only with Georgia’s recruiting, but the Dwayne Allens and A.J. Harmons of the world seem much more like the exception than the rule for a given class. And the "hold everybody hostage" line is just over the top. While there are always those who love to play the game and string everyone along (again – they’d still be signing in February anyway under the SEC proposal), I just don’t recall a lot of the early commitments shopping around into January.

Bobby Petrino makes a quality point: "We got here in December and were able to change some minds of some young men in our state. Had there been an early signing period those kids might have been already signed." That’s an issue for the prospect as well. The college regular season is still ongoing in late November. Few, if any, personnel moves would have been made by this point. Prospects would still run the risk of signing with a school about to change the head coach or any number of assistants.

We’ve heard enough on the subject from the coaches. The next reasonable step seems to be getting a good sample of prospects candidly on the record. Would an early signing period really be something that they want? Would they be willing to give up the plum official visits if it meant that they could end the recruiting process two months early? Would they feel pressure to sign early if it meant that their scholarship offer depended on it?

If anyone still needs convincing that “The Celebration” was a paradigm-changing event, just watch this clip from – where else?.

Good news for those unable to make it to Athens for this weekend’s baseball regional. CSS has added coverage to their lineup, and they will broadcast all games through Monday (if necessary).