Georgia Baseball Climbs National Polls

ATHENS - The Georgia Bulldog baseball team, winners of eight straight in league play and atop the Southeastern Conference standings, are ranked as high as number seven in the top 25 polls released Monday.

The Bulldogs (23-12 overall, 12-3 SEC) are ranked 7th by Collegiate Baseball, 13th by Baseball merica and 13th by USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches. The top six ahead of Georgia in Collegiate Baseball’s Top 30 poll released Monday include Florida State (31-3), Miami, Fla. (30-3), Arizona State (30-4), North Carolina (29-7), Wichita State (27-5) and U.C. Irvine (23-6).

Head coach David Perno has guided the Bulldogs to back-to-back SEC sweeps of No. 9 South Carolina and No. 9 Kentucky the past two weekends. The 12-3 SEC mark matches the best-ever start for a Georgia team, joining the 1990 national championship squad and the 1953 and 1954 teams. The ’90 team finished second in the SEC with an 18-9 record. The 1953 team won the SEC with a 12-4 mark and the 1954 team won the Eastern Division (12-4). In 2006, Georgia went 12-3 in the second half of the SEC season and finished second in the league at 18-9. The best 15-game SEC stretch by the Bulldogs came by the 2004 SEC Championship team as they went 13-2 in the second half of the year.

For the sixth consecutive week, Georgia will play five games in a week, and this Tuesday it begins with East Tennessee State (9-26) coming to Foley Field at 5 p.m. On Wednesday, Georgia plays host to Ga. State (18-15) at 6 p.m. Georgia will employ several pitchers in the midweek games with junior right-hander Stephen Brock (0-1, 10.50 ERA) starting Tuesday and freshman right-hander Justin Grimm (0-1, 7.31 ERA) on Wednesday.