Sports

The Softball team's run to the National Championship ended last weekend.

As summer classes start up throughout college campuses and high schools across the nation begin to wrap up the school year, it usually means one thing: college sports are about to end as well. Naturally this was the case for several of UGA’s programs.  With that in mind, I will chronologically recap the season’s end for some of the notable spring sports: (Disclaimer: the ranking to the left of the team is the program’s ranking before heading into postseason play)

#4 Men’s Tennis Team: Finish- Lost in the Quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship on May 17th

Recap: The men’s tennis team hopes for an NCAA three-peat were ruined by #12 Texas in the quarterfinals and while the team did not bring home another national title, the team will return 7 out of 8 (losing only Sr. Josh Varela). Varela will be replaced by upcoming Fr. Bo Seal, who apparently has quite a lot of hype.

#2 Women’s Tennis Team: Finish- Lost in the Semifinals of the NCAA Championship on May 18th

Recap: Anytime you go 27-3 in a season and make your first appearance in the semifinals since 2002, you definitely had yourself a great year. This was the case for the women’s team as they lost to #3 Duke in the semis. The ladies will be bringing back 6 out of 7 players (losing Sr. Monika Dancevic) in hopes of having an even better year next year.

#15 Women’s Golf team: Finish- 15th at NCAA Championship on May 22nd

Recap: Georgia failed on its attempt to record a 10th top-10 finish in the last dozen years. Still, the Bulldogs recorded their 25th top-20 performance in the last 31 years.

The Bulldogs should make a push to return to the top 10 next season. Georgia will return 80 percent of its NCAA lineup and will welcome a trio of Peach State prep prospects — Emilie Burger, Kendall Wright and Abby Johnson — who signed in November. Georgia also may add additional members to its roster before the fall.

#1 Men’s Golf Team: Finish- Lost in Final Four of National Championship on May 29th

Recap: Despite the loss to #10 Arkansas, a Top four finish in the NCAAs is a great year for any program and the team will be returning 7 out of 10 golfers (though they will be losing their Top 2 golfers in Brian Harman and Russell Henley) next year.

Baseball Team: Finish- Lost to Ohio State in NCAA Regional Play in Tallahassee Regional on May 31st

Recap: After crushing Ohio State 24-8 in the Dawg’s first game of regional play, UGA then lost to #8 FSU 8-2 the next day and needing to beat Ohio State once again the following day to avoid being eliminated in the double-elimination regional tournament format unfortunately fell 13-6 (despite blowing a 5-0 lead early on).

As mentioned several times on this blog, this team could best be described as Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde or as the perfect example of a tale of two seasons:

Record before April 24th: 32-9, #1 team in the nation

Record after April 24th: 6-15, with a 8-game losing streak included in that stretch of play.

Final Record: 38-24

Perhaps, it was the fact that the team’s youth (18 out of the 34 players were underclassmen) caught up to them, but whatever the reason(s) for how things came apart, despite the disappointing end to the year, for a team that did not have a lot of expectations/preseason hype  a 2nd consecutive NCAA postseason appearance should be a good enough result for the UGA faithful.

The good news: the team theoretically could only lose 6 players,  with only 3 of which actually making a signifigant impact on the team (#2 Starter Trevor Holder, Set-up man Will Harvil, C/DH and #4 hitter Bryce Massanari, Back-up utility infielder Miles Starr and reliever Jason Leaver).

The bad news: More than likely, #3 hitter, first team All SEC, Louisville Slugger All-American and a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and the Golden Spikes Award, 1B Rich Poythress, will be forgoing his senior year and will be drafted in the early rounds of the upcoming MLB Draft (June 9th-11th). Also, in the event that Jr. CF Matt Cerione (who was 4th on the team on numerous offense categories, including batting average, runs, doubles, home runs and rbis) or closer Dean Weaver  get picked high enough, theu, too, could be leaving a year early.

We will certainly be monitoring how high each of these players (along with some of UGA’s recruiting signees) go and whether or not UGA will be losing any non-seniors to the baseball draft.

#8 Softball Team: Finish-Lost in Final Four of Women’s College World Series on May 31st

Recap: As mentioned a few times on the blog, the softball program had a breakout year this season, finishing 47-12 and advancing to the school’s first WCWS. After losing to #3 Washington in the opening game of the WCWS, the team rebounded by defeating #11 Missouri 5-2 and #6 Michigan 7-5. Then having to beat Washington twice in a row in order to advance to the National Championship game against #1 UF, the Dawgs came up one game short, winning the first game 9-8 in 9 innings (a usual softball game is only 7 innings), before running out of gas by losing 9-3 in the 2nd game of the day (and 4th in a 2-day stretch). Fortunately for Dawg fans, #3 Washington went on to sweep #1 UF in the Championship to win its first ever National Title in softball.

Look for the softball team to come back strong next season, as they bring back 18 out of 20 players (though they will certainly miss staff ace, Christie Hamilton and #2 hitter and SS Kristin Schnake, who where both critical players both on the field and off, being the team’s only two upperclassmen).

Men’s and Women’s Track and Field: Finish- TBD

Recap: Well actually there is not anything to recap quite yet, as the only UGA team left still competing is the Men’s and Women’s Track and Field team. After completing in the NCAA East Regional competition, the team will wrap up its season in the NCAA Outdoor Championships held in Fayetteville, Arkansas this Wednesday through Saturday.