UGA ready for Mississippi State rematch at SEC Tournament

Georgia picked a good time to play its best baseball.

Having won eight of their past 11 games, the Bulldogs earned the 12th seed in this year’s SEC Tournament. For a while, it appeared Georgia would be one of the two conference teams left out of the conference playoff. But with the recent hot streak, Georgia earned a tournament berth and will play No. 5 seed Mississippi State in the first round Tuesday night.

This could be a promising matchup for Georgia (25-31), too. Georgia won its series against Mississippi State two weeks ago, taking two of the three games.

Georgia is also coming off a series win over South Carolina, although that series ended with a loss. After that particular game, Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin told his players to remain upbeat heading into the postseason.

“I told them to stay positive heading into Tuesday,” Stricklin said. “I hate it the way it ended here (Saturday), but overall we’re looking forward to playing in the SEC Tournament, and it’s great we have a chance to keep playing.”

Leading Georgia of late has been junior outfielder Keegan McGovern. In Georgia’s most-recent series against Mississippi State, McGovern hit .625 with five hits. While McGovern is hitting .297 with a team-high 35 walks, he has posted a .500 batting average with six RBI the past seven games.

McGovern’s prowess at the plate of late has proved vital for a Georgia team looking to salvage has been a disappointing season for the most part.

Prior to the month of May, Georgia only took one series against an SEC opponent, which happened to be against Tennessee. Since, the Bulldogs have won their past three series — which included taking two of three games against top-10 programs Kentucky and Mississippi State in back-to-back weekends.

That was the first time Georgia accomplished such a feat since 2008, when it reached the finals of the College World Series.

“We started playing with a lot of confidence, and we’ve won three SEC series in a row against some really good baseball teams,” Stricklin said. “We’ve got six freshmen with more than 100 at-bats now, and they’ve grown up. They’re not freshmen anymore, and our veterans have shown great leadership, too. It took some time for us to grow up, and we put ourselves in a tough position, however we have momentum now going to the SEC Tournament.”

The Tuesday game between Georgia and Mississippi State will be single elimination, with the winner advancing to the second round to take on No. 4 seed Arkansas. The Razorbacks swept Georgia earlier this season in Fayetteville.

SEC Tournament first and second round schedule

Tuesday, May 23　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Game 1, 10:30 a.m.: No. 6 Vanderbilt vs. No. 11 South Carolina (SEC Network)

Game 2, TBD: No. 7 Texas A&M vs. No. 10 Missouri (SEC Network)

Game 3, 4:30 p.m.: No. 8 Auburn vs. No. 9 Ole Miss (SEC Network)

Game 4, TBD: No. 5 Mississippi State vs. No. 12 Georgia (SEC Network)

Wednesday, May 24　　　　　

Game 5, 9:30 a.m.: No. 3 Kentucky vs. Winner Game 1 (SEC Network)

Game 6, TBD: No. 2 LSU vs. Winner Game 2 (SEC Network)

Game 7, 4:30 p.m.: No. 1 Florida vs. Winner Game 3 (SEC Network)

Game 8, TBD: No. 4 Arkansas vs. Winner Game 4 (SEC Network)

This story was originally published May 22, 2017 at 1:12 PM with the headline "UGA ready for Mississippi State rematch at SEC Tournament."