Hello again from Omaha, where the DawgNation crew is having a blast (even if yours truly nearly got knocked over by the wind yesterday).
From left, DawgNation's Brandon Adams, Sarah Spencer and Cody Chaffins in front of Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, ahead of the College World Series. (Courtesy of Sarah Spencer)
If you don’t believe me about the wind, you can just check out the state of my hair.
“It’s a massive ballpark,” Johnson said Tuesday, before the Bulldogs flew to Omaha, Nebraska, on Wednesday. “The wind plays a really, really big factor in there. There’s days it doesn’t matter how much power you have. … There’s days I’ve joked you can hit the ball twice and not hit it out of there. And then there’s been days, you know, it’s played very hitter-friendly. Most of the time, and you know when, if it’s playing neutral, it’s going to play a lot like (SEC Tournament host site) Hoover (Alabama). It’ll really go down the lines. It’s really hard to get it out, you know, alley to alley to center field, but down the lines you can get it out.”
That would bode well for Georgia, which won its first SEC Tournament title May 24 at the Hoover Met Complex.
Stellar Texas lefty presents challenge
Georgia had its pitching machine up higher than usual during its practice Thursday at Charles Schwab Field.
The No. 3 national seed Bulldogs were getting prepared for 6-foot-6 pitcher Dylan Volantis, the Texas starter in Saturday’s 8 p.m. ET College World Series matchup. Volantis (10-1, 2.03 ERA), a finalist for National Pitcher of the Year for the second straight season, owns the third-lowest ERA in the country.
The idea is to try to mimic Volantis’ high release point. Adjusting the height isn’t unique to preparing for No. 6 national seed Texas (45-13), per left fielder Kenny Ishikawa, but it’s often helpful for Georgia (51-12).
“That’s our daily routine for us, and it really helps us hit better,” Ishikawa said. “Just seeing the same height and the same movement, I think, helps us a lot better on the hitting side.”
“It’s no replacing a human and an actual arm doing it, but any way we could try to replicate that or mimic that, it really does help,” Georgia second baseman Ryan Wynn added.
Volantis, a sophomore lefty, is also first in the SEC in WHIP (1.02), with a 62.3% ground ball rate. The Bulldogs, of course, lead Division l in home runs with a program-record 174 and take pride in hitting for power.
“We play in the Southeastern Conference, and we see Friday night guys every week that are really, really good and are going to have a chance to play in the big leagues,” Georgia coach Wes Johnson said on how the Bulldogs can attack Volantis. “And here’s another good one. This young man’s got a chance to pitch for a long time in this game, and you start trying to change the way you do things to combat somebody, you usually get in trouble because your players aren’t used to that.
“If all of a sudden we come out, start trying to bunt, probably not going to have a lot of success. Although we work on bunting, it’s just not our strong suit. So, you know, we have to go out and have a good game plan, hunt zones, areas, and, quite frankly, you hope he makes a mistake.”
Georgia baseball transfer portal tracker 2026
Even though the final eight teams standing are busy in Omaha, recruiting never stops.
The transfer portal window for college baseball opened June 1 and will remain open for a month, closing June 30.
DawgNation will keep a running tally of transfers in/out:
If Daniel Jackson were to steal four bases over the course of the College World Series, he would become the second player in Division l history to record a 30-30 season.
Who is the first?
(Answer at the bottom of the newsletter).
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Kirby Smart’s youngest son earns first college offer, but it comes from a UGA rival
Andrew Smart, Kirby’s youngest son, received his first collegiate scholarship offer Thursday, as he announced the offer on his Instagram page.
But the offer didn’t come from his father, the head coach at Georgia. It came from Brent Key, Georgia Tech’s head coach.
Andrew Smart was at Georgia Tech on Thursday and participated in a seven-on-seven tournament. Smart was photographed chatting with Key during the event, with the post quickly going viral on social media.
Smart is a 2030 quarterback prospect who will play for Athens Academy this fall. Smart is still a ways off from enrolling in college, as he’ll enter his freshman year of high school this fall.
Andrew Smart is one of three Smart children, with twins Weston and Julia heading off to college this year. Weston was an accomplished tennis player, while Julia participated in track. Kirby Smart showed up in support of Julia at the Georgia High School state track meet in May.
There are still a lot of unknowns with Georgia’s schedule to this point, and not just from a game time perspective.
With the SEC moving to a ninth conference game, Smart is interested in the unintended consequences that come from the schedule change.
“I am very intrigued, you know. I’m interested to see the injury reports and how far and how deep they go with this, but it’s all speculation right now, because it, you know, it may not have a huge effect,” Smart said in an interview with ESPN.
That made a difference in Georgia’s season-ending defeat against Ole Miss, when Georgia was without its best offensive lineman and top defensive lineman.
The additional game comes at a time when rosters are shrinking, as schools eventually move their way down to roster limits of 105. With the elimination of walk-ons, team rosters are in the process of dipping from what Smart previously estimated was around 130-man rosters to 105.
That will have an impact on the way Georgia practices, as it will have fewer bodies to use in practice.
“As this thing goes down to 105, you know, people are going to have to practice different. They’re going to have to do camp different, and maybe that makes some less injuries throughout the year, and hopefully can go into the end of the season and be at your peak,” Smart said.
Keep an eye out for stories and videos from us this weekend as Georgia gets its CWS slate rolling.
DawgNation will be live from the field tomorrow in Omaha to get you ready for Georgia’s opener vs. Texas on Saturday. Brandon Adams hosts our pregame show live at 6:30 p.m. EDT tomorrow. We will bring all the sights and sounds from Omaha, plus some really cool stories from our Cody Chaffins.
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Trivia answer: J.D. Drew for Florida State in 1997
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