Dawgs sent packing from College World Series

A disappointing weekend came to a premature end for the Georgia Bulldogs. Though they were clearly marked from the beginning of August as a team of destiny, bound for Club Baseball immortality, they left the CWS Regionals a day early, falling to 0-2 and being eliminated in Regional play.

Game 1 saw a rematch against the rival Florida Gators. Though UF took 2 of 3 in Jacksonville from UGA earlier in the year, this UGA team felt confident with lefty ace Randy Ficarrotta, leadoff hitter Kyle Sheahan, and 2nd baseman Daniel Weingarten being on the field after missing the regular season UF series due to various injuries and religious holidays. After cruising through his first 3 innings ringing up 7 Ks, Ficarrotta struggled in the 4th with control. UF scored 5 runs in the 4th, 4 off of Ficarrotta (2 earned), and never looked back. Jonathan Vines gave the Dawgs good relief work, throwing 4.1 innings of relief, allowing his first 3 runs of the season on the mound. Georgia was shutout at the plate by Florida ace Matt Campbell who improved to 2-0 in 14 innings (1 run) on the season against the Dawgs.

In Game 2 of the consolation bracket, UGA ran into top seed Appalachain State. App. State jumped to a 4-0 lead in the 3rd after working Joseph Batrous to deep counts that led to clutch hits. Freshman Aaron Bender came in relief and threw 4 shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out 4, to give Georgia a chance. In the 6th, Watson Lavigno hit his team leading 6th home run of the year, a towering 2-run moonshot than hit halfway up the monster wall behind the fence in left-center field, behind the 385 ft sign. Georgia pushed across another run in the 7th as Rich Maske singled Jonathan Vines home to bring the Dawgs within 1. But Georgia could not push across the most crucial run in the 8th or 9th frame, and fell by a final score of 4-3 to end their season.

Though Georgia fell short of its goal of a National Title, they would like to thanks their seniors Chris Cornelison, Brian Rottner, Curtis Clark, Jonathon Pawlowski, and graduating Junior Dan Masi for phenominal seasons and careers at Georgia. They have been staples of this program for several years, and include a 2 year President and 2 assistant coaches. Best of luck in your future endeavors guys.

As far as the season went, while disapointed they did not perform well at the CWS, Georgia is proud of a record setting season. They set a single season record in team wins, going 18-9 (10-2) and recaptured the Conference Title which was taken from them in 2008 by Clemson. Georgia also congratulates several individual players on phenominal years: Sophomore Kyle Sheahan set single season team records with 21 stolen bases and 40 runs scored. Junior Watson Lavigno tied a season record with 6 home runs, and Sophomore David Vernon set a single season mark with 36 RBI’s.

A big thanks goes out to all of our loyal fans and parents or friends whose donations helped to make this season possible. Georgia will take some time off this summer, and looks forward to next fall when they will begin their Conference Title defense and make another (hopefully better) run at a National Title. See you guys in August.

Go Dawgs