"The kids earned it, and I think we made it easy on the selection committee by winning the Southeastern Conference which is the toughest league in the country," said Head Coach David Perno in a statement released today.
NCAA Baseball Committee Chairman Charlie Carr (Florida State) agreed with Perno that the SEC is the most difficult conference in the country.
“It’s a great conference and it has been very difficult to separate all of the schools in the country but particularly in the SEC,” he said. “The SEC is possibly the best league in the country.”
SEC schools will host 5 of the 16 regionals next weekend, more than any other conference. The Bulldogs, LSU, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Ole Miss all host next weekend.
“I figured there would be at least four SEC teams hosting, and we ended up having five so that's good for the league,” said Perno.
Carr indicated that Florida just missed out on being the SEC’s 6th host institution.
“Crowd history and success in hosting did not go unnoticed,” said Carr. Florida State, Texas, and Miami have all hosted 20 or more times. Only Ole Miss and Virginia are hosting Regionals for the first time ever.
The last time that Georgia hosted a Regional was in 2001 when the Bulldogs went on to the College World Series.
The full field of 64 will be announced tomorrow at noon. Georgia will play the 3 PM Friday game in Athens. The second game of the Athens Regional will follow at 7 PM. Saturday’s games will start at 11 AM with two more games following that afternoon. Sunday will feature at least one game; possibly two.
“A new season starts Friday, and were excited to be playing at Foley Field,” said Perno.