Postseason baseball is headed back to Athens. The NCAA announced on Sunday that Georgia will be one of 16 hosts for next weekend’s opening rounds of the NCAA Baseball Tournament with each of the regional sites having four teams ready to play on location. It’s UGA’s first time hosting a regional since 2019 and just the seventh opportunity to do so in program history.
Other hosts, in alphabetical order, are as follows: Arizona, Arkansas, Clemson, East Carolina, Florida State, Kentucky, NC State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UC Santa Barbara and Virginia.
Georgia finished the 2024 regular season, its first under the direction of head coach Wes Johnson, with a 39-14 record including a 17-13 mark in the SEC. It’s the most wins by a Bulldogs squad since 2019 and the best season by a first-year head coach in program history.
Three Bulldogs were recognized by the SEC with all-conference honors including potential National Player of the Year Charlie Condon as a first-team All-SEC selection and the SEC Player of the Year. Condon entered conference tournaments leading the NCAA in batting average (.451), home runs (35), slugging percentage (1.063) and total bases (219) while also being second in hits (93) and third in on base percentage (.567). The former walk-on from Marietta has broken Georgia’s single-season and career home run records, both previously held by 2008 first-rounder Gordon Beckham. Condon is projected to be a top-5 pick in this year’s MLB Draft.
The other three teams in Georgia’s regional will be announced when the full bracket is revealed on Monday at 12:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Recent projections from D1Baseball and Baseball America have the Bulldogs hosting Wake Forest (second seed), UCF or Kennesaw State (third seed) and Samford (fourth seed), but things can change quickly with the results of conference championship games across the country.
Also announced on Monday will be the order of the national seeds. Ranked 1 through 16 and put into a bracket accordingly, the top-8 will have the inside track at hosting a super regional in their home stadium. Georgia is in consideration for a top-8 seed, but being bounced in the opening round of the SEC Tournament earlier this week doesn’t help their case.
UGA NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
NCAA Tournament Appearances (16): 1953, 1954, 1987, 1990, 1992, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024
NCAA Regional Host (7): 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2018, 2019, 2024
NCAA Regional Champions (6): 1987 (Northeast Regional – Atlanta, Ga.), 1990 (Northeast Regional – Waterbury, CT), 2001 (Athens), 2004 (Athens), 2006 (Athens), 2008 (Athens)
College World Series Appearances (6): 1987, 1990, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008
College World Series Runner-Up (1): 2008
NCAA Tournament Champions (1): 1990
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