UGA baseball dealt with long delays. The football team's nap room came in handy

When Georgia stepped into the batter’s box for its second game of postseason play Sunday, it would finally catch a break from its biggest detriment thus far – lightning delays and postponements.

Through the first two days of a regional it hosted, Georgia’s circumstances have been far from favorable. It started to open the festivities Friday when the Bulldogs were slated to face Campbell after Duke faced off against Troy.

Georgia’s preparation was per usual and it was ready to host a sellout crowd on its home turf. Bulldogs’ head coach Scott Stricklin even made a visit to the press box – complemented with a snack of cheddar Goldfish and Diet Coke – to do some scouting on the other teams in the regional.

Then, as he left, a massive band of thunderstorms made its way across north Georgia and it caused a postponement of five hours, 25 minutes. Georgia was hopeful that it could still play its opener as the storm moved southward, but it had been pushed back due to an NCAA curfew of 11 p.m.

“It was disappointing not to play,” Stricklin said. “We had the decision (to play the early game), and we all weighed the pros and cons to play late. We felt like it was the right move to our fans to play under the lights.”

Georgia moved on and readied for a noon start on Saturday, rather than opening its first postseason campaign in eight seasons on a Friday night. It routed its first opponent by an 18-5 tally, and the turnaround was supposed to be short.

Until it wasn’t.

Duke and Campbell had gotten underway in an elimination game and played into the sixth inning when a surge of lightning returned. So, Georgia knew it had a long night ahead, but also had connections to the football facilities at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall.

Kirby Smart had spoken to the group after its final postseason practice Thursday, and he was able to coordinate with baseball strength-and-conditioning coach Ryan Gearheart to give the Bulldogs some access for about an hour. They got to experience cold tubs, an assortment of snacks and a nap room.

“I didn’t even know that existed,” junior Michael Curry said. “It was really dark and had some cool massage chairs. We got to take a nice nap.”

Then, Georgia crossed the street and returned to its Foley Field locker room after a one hour, 37-minute lightning delay with Campbell holding the a lead over ACC foe Duke. The Bulldogs saw a horde of fans surrounding their stadium and they were ready to put on a show.

The NCAA requires for a minimum 55-minute intermission between games, so Georgia knew its game had to start at 10:05 p.m. at the latest. The game started to drag, but Campbell had three outs to record for the victory.

“All right, Campbell is going to shut it down,” Curry thought as the Fighting Camels had an 8-5 lead over Duke headed into the ninth. “We’re good, there’s 25 minutes until 10:05.”

But Curry knew there was a chance Duke could come back on Campbell’s relievers as Georgia posted a plethora of runs in the previous game. And that they did as Duke posted 11 runs in the ninth and it took over 30 minutes for the outs to be recorded.

“It was miserable,” Curry said.

With the game being pushed back, Georgia wasn’t concerned about playing an early game for the second consecutive day. Instead, it just wanted a big crowd and the fan base to support.

Nearly 24 hours later, the fans showed up, Georgia won its second game 11-7 and all is well for the Bulldogs heading into its regional final.

“We’re in the driver’s seat now,” Curry said. “We’re one win away, so we can’t look ahead and have to focus on (Monday).”

This story was originally published June 3, 2018 at 9:00 PM with the headline "UGA baseball dealt with long delays. The football team's nap room came in handy."