Georgia Baseball jumps into Top 25

ATHENS - The red-hot Georgia Bulldog baseball team, winners of seven straight and atop the Southeastern Conference standings, made their top 25 debut in the national polls Monday.

The Bulldogs (20-10, 9-3 SEC) are ranked 11th by Collegiate Baseball, 14th by Baseball America, 18th by Rivals.com and 23rd by USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches poll. Last week, Georgia was 27th in Collegiate Baseball’s top 30 but not ranked in the others. After playing one of the nation's toughest pre-SEC schedules, the Bulldogs are now 10-6 against top 25 teams this year, and the 10 wins lead the SEC.

Up next, the Bulldogs have another five-game week, featuring Winthrop (12-19) here Tuesday at 5 p.m., at #10 Georgia Tech (25-7) Wednesday and play host to an SEC series with #9 Kentucky (25-5, 7-5 SEC) starting Friday at Foley Field.

Meanwhile, senior Joshua Fields earned SEC Pitcher of the Week honors, the league announced Monday. Fields went 1-0 with two saves in three appearances against #17 Clemson and #9 South Carolina last week. He pitched three scoreless innings with no hits, two walks (one intentional) and six strikeouts. He has 31 career saves. For the year, Fields has not allowed an earned run. He is 1-1 with a 0.00 ERA in 16 games, recording 32 strikeouts and six walks in 15.1 innings pitched.

Fields is part of the vaunted bullpen that has not allowed an earned run in the last 34.1 innings of SEC action, a span of 10 games. In the series sweep of #9 USC, they tossed nine scoreless innings. Along with Fields, the bullpen stalwarts this season include sophomores Alex McRee, Justin Earls and Dean Weaver along with senior Nick Montgomery.