ATHENS — Georgia baseball is in its second week of fall practice, where the newly formed Bulldogs begin their nearly 10-month-long journey that hopefully ends in the same spot last season did — in the College World Series.

It was a historic season for Georgia, highlighted by a program-best 53-14 record, regular season and SEC tournament championships and a trip back to the College World Series for the first time in 18 years.

For his efforts, head coach Wes Johnson was awarded a new contract extension that will keep him around for the foreseeable future.

But with all of its recent success, Georgia now flips the page to this season. The Bulldogs have to replace Golden Spikes Winner Daniel Jackson, along with 12 other MLB draft picks.

Despite all of the roster turnover, Johnson admitted that Georgia’s winning ways have been a huge boost heading into the fall.

For the second straight year, Georgia finished with the No. 1 transfer portal class, signing 19 of its 20 commits this offseason.

Some of the headlining pieces include UTL Naulivou Lauaki Jr. (Oregon), RHPs Jason Flores (Texas), Riley Goodman (South Carolina), Finn Edwards (Arizona State), INF Mikey Bell (Gonzaga) and catcher Hunter Carns (Florida State).

Johnson knows reaching the College World Series is a goal every recruit shares.

“Most players want to go to Omaha,” Johnson said. “So being able to now talk about it and say, yeah, we’ve done it. Not 2008 was the last one prior, but being able to say we’ve done it recently and it really does help.”

While it is still early, the Bulldogs just wrapped up their fourth intra-squad scrimmage on Tuesday, Johnson likes what he is seeing so far from his team.

“Really, really pleased with where we’re at on the mound. Like a lot of guys on the mound. We’re throwing a lot of strikes, and then we got some stuff to go with it,” Johnson said. “Offensively, been relatively pleased with our bats early. You know, typically when you come out in the fall, hitters are a tick behind just because they haven’t seen the live pitching.”

In this new era of the transfer portal, Johnson has had to readjust how he plans the fall to best get his team ready come the spring. This means fewer practices and more team scrimmages.

The thought process behind this is all about player development. Players come to Georgia to elevate their games. Johnson says the only way to truly get a feel for where someone is at is through live exhibitions.

“They want to play, and so yeah, we’re scrimmaging a lot more than we used to back in the day,” Johnson said.

However, this can make the transition period less accommodating than some prefer, since Johnson expects his guys to have a big-league mentality and be ready to go right from the jump.

“I talk to them real early and often about professional baseball being traded. When somebody’s traded, or somebody’s up for arbitration. Hey, there ain’t no getting acclimated, man. You better get in there and hit the ground with your feet running and do what you do,” Johnson said. “I tell them, ‘Hey, you don’t have time. Like we got to go now,’ because I think one of the biggest challenges with players today is they think they got a lot of time, and we’ve got, you know, roughly 10 level months.”