ATHENS — Georgia baseball’s road to Omaha starts at Foley Field on Friday, but it began with a weather delay on Friday.
The No. 7-seed Bulldogs (42-15) were supposed to start play at noon against America East champ Binghamton (29-24) at noon before the game was delayed by NCAA officials, who started the game at 3:36 p.m.
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Georgia has been focused on making a run to the College World Series, which would mark its first trip to Omaha, Neb., since 2008, since the start of the season.
But second-year UGA coach Wes Johnson has made it clear the focus has shifted to beating Binghamton, and then what would come next, which would be a game against the winner of the Duke-Oklahoma State game that’s scheduled to take place after Georgia’s game on Friday.
“Yes, that’s one of our goals, right? Just like being a national seed was a goal, you want to have a chance to play at home,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t guarantee you’re going to get to Omaha. It doesn’t guarantee you’re going to win regionals and super regionals. It’s just something that lets you know that, yeah, we’re moving in the right direction.
“It still comes back to playing clean baseball. Not giving the other team freebies, not chasing (bad pitches), not doing things on the base path that give them free outs.”
Offensively, Georgia will be looking to continue its power surge, as the team leads the nation with 133 home runs this season.
The Bulldogs, 29-4 at home this season, have hit 91 of their 133 home runs at Foley Field.
A win in this double-elimination regional this weekend would mean Georgia would play host to the winner of the Oxford, Miss., regional — Ole Miss is the national No. 10-national seed and the favorite — in a best-of-three Super Regional at Foley Field.
The Bulldogs came within a game of winning their Super Regional last year — and returning to the College World Series — when they fell at home to North Carolina State, 8-5, in a decisive game three.
“You start trying to go off what you do last year, or what you did last season,” Johnson said. “But you’ve got to erase the board and start fresh.”
