THE SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE THIS IS SEC BASEBALL
GEORGIA’S SEC TITLES
1933 SEC: 8-1 Overall: 12-3-1 First year of the SEC; Highest conference winning percentage (%) 1953 SEC: 12-4 Overall: 23-5 Beat Miss. St. 2-0 in a 3-game playoff between division leaders 1954 SEC: 11-4 Overall: 16-9 Beat Ole Miss 2-1 in 3-game playoff between division leaders 2001 SEC: 20-10 Overall: 47-22 Highest conference winning %; Advanced to CWS (T7th) 2004 SEC: 19-11 Overall: 45-23 Shared title with Arkansas (same win%); Advanced to CWS (T3rd) 2008 SEC: 20-9-1 Overall: 45-25-1 Highest conference winning%; Advanced to CWS Finals (2nd)
2008 SEC Champions College World Series: 2nd
Note: In 1987, Georgia finished the regular season with the best SEC mark at 18-8 but the SEC title went to league tournament winner Miss. State. MSU went 4-0 in the tournament after going 13-13 during the year. Starting in 1988, the SEC title went to the regular season champion and the tournament winner received the league’s automatic NCAA bid. Note: Georgia has won five SEC Eastern Division titles (1955, 1975, 2001, 2004 and 2008). The SEC Championship format has varied since the incepetion of the league in 1933. Some years, the SEC has had divisions. In 1977, the league began holding an SEC Tournament following the regular season.
Year 1933 1953 1954 1987 2001 2004 2008
The Southeastern Conference, with its storied 87-year history of athletic achievements and academic excellence, has built perhaps the greatest tradition of intercollegiate competition in baseball of any league in the country since its inception in 1933. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 college baseball season was canceled right before the SEC schedule was slated to start. In fact, the SEC Opening Weekend would’ve featured No. 2 Georgia at No. 1 Florida. In fact, 11 SEC teams finished the 2020 season ranked in the top 25 of the various polls. The pandemic caused the 2020 MLB Draft to be shortened to five rounds (down from 40) plus the minor league season was canceled too. Still, the SEC had nine players selected in the first round including four of the top six: Arkansas’ Heston Kjerstad (No. 2-Baltimore), Texas A&M’s Asa Lacy (No. 4-Kansas City), Vanderbilt’s Austin Martin (No. 5-Toronto) and Georgia’s Emerson Hancock (No. 6-Seattle). Also of note, Tennessee’s Garrett Crochet (No. 11-Chicago White Sox) became the first player in the 2020 class to be called up to the Majors in the same year he was drafted since 2014 (Brandon Finnegan-TCU). With no minor league season, Crochet became the first player to go straight to the Majors since 2010 (Mike LeakeArizona State). The SEC has now had a first round MLB selection each year since 1991 and 139 total in the first round during that time. In 2019, the SEC posted another tremendous season with four teams advancing to the College World Series (CWS) and Vanderbilt winning the title. An SEC squad has appeared in the CWS 34 of the last 35 years when it was held as it was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. An SEC team has made the CWS Championship series annually from 2008-2015 along with 2017-2019. Six SEC players were selected in the first round of the 2019 MLB Draft. Vanderbilt claimed the 2019 SEC regular-season title after going 23-7 in league action. Also, the Commodores won the 2019 SEC Tournament title over Ole Miss in Hoover as the six-day event drew a record 162,669 fans. Did You Know? • Georgia won the first baseball national title for the SEC in 1990 while LSU has collected six crowns since then (1991, ’93, ’96, 1997, 2000, ’09), South Carolina (2010, ’11) and Vanderbilt (2014, ’19) have two and Florida (2017) has one. • There have been nine runner-up finishes: Georgia (2008), Florida (2011), South Carolina (2012), Miss. State (2013), Vanderbilt (2015), LSU (2017) and Arkansas (2018).
2004 SEC Champions College World Series: T3rd
GEORGIA’S SEC COACH OF THE YEAR RECIPIENTS Coach W.P. White Jim Whatley Jim Whatley Steve Webber Ron Polk David Perno David Perno
SEC 8-1 12-4 11-4 18-8 20-10 19-11 20-9-1
Overall 12-3-1 23-5 16-9 42-21 47-22 45-23 45-25-1
2021 GEORGIA BULLDOG BASEBALL
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