Baseball

Image:Kelly Wegel

The Diamond Dogs dominated Youngstown St. for the second day in a row going home with a 14-0 shutout.

Junior Alex Mcree delivered 5 2/3 scoreless innings and once again the freshmen bats of Jonathan Taylor and Chase Davidson were on fire.

Freshmen Johnathan Taylor and Chase Davidson led the Bulldogs with three hits apiece. Taylor is now 5-for-7 with four RBI through two games.

“Johnathan is really pushing for conference player of the week and really national player of the week,” Perno said. “The things he has done the last couple of days are unreal, especially as a freshman. He’s playing great out there.”

Smooth sailing for the Diamond Dogs so far. They’ll have an opportunity to go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at Foley Field.

RELATED LINKS:

• 2009 UGA Baseball Schedule

Image:Tricia Spalding/Athens Banner-Herald

Georgia took out the paddle on Youngstown State at Foley Field this afternoon. The freshman bats came alive and Trevor Holder held ‘em to just 2 runs.

Senior ace Trevor Holder dominated and the five freshmen in Georgia’s starting lineup provided much of the offensive firepower as the Bulldogs opened their season with a 15-2 win over Youngstown State on Friday at Foley Field.

The freshmen weren’t the only ones lighting it up. Some familiar faces stepped up to the plate and helped show the new kids how it is done, son.

In all, the freshmen were responsible for eight of Georgia’s 17 hits and scored eight of the Bulldogs’ runs. But they weren’t the only source of offense, as senior catcher Bryce Massanari was 3-for-4 with three runs and juniors Michael Demperio and Poythress each went 2-for-5 and scored once.

Coach Perno is just giddy:

“It’s fun on so many levels,” Georgia coach David Perno said. “You’re sitting here and when they took the field, I looked out there and I was like, ‘Good night!’ For three years you’ll see Zach Cone, Chase Davidson, JT, Levi Hyams, Colby May. That’s pretty special.”

The Diamond Dogs have gotten off to a great start. I’m sure they’re determined to put this odd year bad, even year good business behind them and they did so with a vengeance. I think we may be seeing the formation of a College Baseball powerhouse.

The future of Georgia Baseball is getting brighter everyday.

Jeff Owens has been typing away on his tiny iPhone keyboard. He gives love to the unsung athletic trainers who work diligently behind the scenes and has published a fresh player Q&A wth Tony Wilson.

A great tale of sportsmanship from a high school basketball game.

Seems like there is a growing number of folks in the media thinking that this Kiffin kid may actually be smarter than we all think. Pfffft….

AthlonSports profiles Georgia’s 2009 recruiting class. They ranked it 8th, 3rd best in the SEC.

The coaches pick the Diamond Dogs to unleash the power of their new Easton bats (scroll down, permalink is broken) and win the Eastern Division.

Jeff Dantzler has some great perspective on the upcoming football season over at Bulldawg Illustrated’s Dawg Blog.

It looks like it will be just one more day before Kwame Geathers makes his decision between Georgia, Tennessee and Central Florida.

Mark Richt has a blog. Subscribe!

Speaking of Coach Richt… he’s promised M.L. King RB Mack Brown the number 33 and called him a “helluva back“.

LB Darryl Gamble says there is a new culture taking hold in locker room this year.

LOST continues to bring “teh awesomez“.

Image: ESPN

View the 2009 UGA Baseball Schedule

The Red & Black has a write-up on Georgia all-star first baseman Rich Poythress and his off-season commitment to baseball. Poythress ventured north to Massachussetts to play in the legendary Cape Cod Summer League.

The amateur baseball league in Massachusetts has produced players such as Todd Helton, Mark Texeira and Jeff Kent and during the 2007 season had 212 alumni on Major League rosters. And junior first baseman Rich Poythress hopes to one day join the list of alums to make it to The Show.

With the great weather we’ve been having and the dismal basketball season we’re still enduring, the Diamond Dogs cannot hit the diamond at Foley fast enough.

It’s well known that under Perno Georgia Baseball has had a tendency to be down during odd years but this year looks to be shaping up differently than in years past. Plus, it seems the second place finish in Omaha last year has just increased the team’s resolve to obtain that same level of success this year.

To come up that short in the last game and know you didn’t play as well as you could have, it’s tough,” he said. “But it’s good motivation and fuel for this year’s team… And I think we set ourselves up to have a good year, we just have to go out there and perform and work hard and have the heart.”

Where do I get my peanuts and Cracker Jacks?

RELATED:

• 2009 UGA Baseball Schedule

Baseball America is looking ahead to the 2009 college baseball season.

They have the ‘Dawgs at number 14, which gives me a lot of optimism for the season coming up.

Basically, Georgia needs to see if they can overcome this odd year curse that seems to be haunting them.

Georgia has some unfinished business after coming so close to a national title in June. But odd years have not been kind to the Dawgs in the David Perno era: they went to Omaha in 2004, ’06 and ’08 but missed regionals in ’05 and ’07.

I’ve been to a few games at Foley but admittedly haven’t followed the team as closely as the football and basketball teams in the past.

I believe last year changed that for me though. I got into the World Series run as much as any football game. I’m looking forward to tuning in a lot earlier to this year’s season.