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 88-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. Arkansas claimed the 2021 SEC regular-season title after going 22-8 in league action. Also, the Razorbacks won the 2021 SEC Tournament title over Tennessee in Hoover, Ala. The SEC led all conferences with nine teams in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, and Mississippi State claimed the league’s seventh national title in 12 years, beating Vanderbilt in the CWS Finals. An SEC squad has appeared in the CWS 35 of the last 36 years when it was held (It was canceled in 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic). An SEC team has made the CWS Championship series annually from 2008-2015 along with 2017-2019 and then again in 2021. Four SEC players were selected in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft. The SEC has now had a first round MLB selection each year since 1991 and 143 total in the first round during that time. 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. The pandemic caused the 2020 MLB Draft to be shortened to five rounds (down from 40) plus the minor league season was canceled. 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). 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 while Florida (2017) and Miss. State (2021) have one. • There have been eight runner-up finishes: Georgia (2008), Florida (2011), South Carolina (2012), Miss. State (2013), Vanderbilt (2015 & 2021), LSU (2017) and Arkansas (2018). • Three student-athletes from the SEC were named to the 2021 Academic All-America Division I baseball team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Also of note in 2020, Georgia’s Emerson Hancock was named a First Team Academic All-American. • The 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game rosters included 11 players from SEC institutions including Georgia’s Jared Walsh (Los Angeles Angels).
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
2022 GEORGIA BULLDOG BASEBALL
43