June 26, 2008

Great Season

Georgia reaches title game for first time since 1990

By Phil Stanton

CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder

OMAHA, Neb. –  Great season.

It may not feel that way now for Georgia, but it’s a great accomplishment to reach the Championship Series of the CWS. And the Bulldogs had some great memories along the way.

Georgia won the SEC regular-season crown. The Bulldogs were a national seed at No. 8 for the NCAA Tournament. Georgia hosted and won the Athens Regional and the Athens Super Regional to earn their trip to Omaha.

“One game isn’t going to define our season as a failure at all,” said senior Ryan Peisel, a member of the 2008 CWS All-Tournament Team. “It’s been an honor to work with the coaches, the staff, the players. I couldn’t have asked for a better senior year. There’s no judgment on this season by tonight, just because we came up on one end of the losing spectrum. It’s not going to change anything that this team has done from SEC on through Regionals and Super Regionals. For us to come out here, it’s been a blast and I can’t say enough good things about the coaches, about the players. It’s going to be a tough time leaving this team, so many friends and memories. It’s one of those things, you hate to see it end, you know it’s got to end, but it’s one of those things, it’s part of life.”

Georgia came up one game short of its second baseball national championship and first since 1990. The Bulldogs finished 2008 with a record of 45-25-1 after going 23-33 a season ago.