University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Baseball Season Ends at 30-25
May 31, 2005 | Baseball
May 31, 2005
ATHENS ---- The 2005 University of Georgia baseball season officially ended Monday when the Bulldogs did not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships. Up next, the Major League Baseball First-Year player draft is June 7-8.
At 30-25 overall and 12-17 in league play, Georgia missed the Southeastern Conference eight-team tournament by a half game. The difference between seventh and 11th place in the SEC was a half game. In fact, seventh seed Mississippi State who went 13-16 in league play, ended up winning the SEC Tournament over Western division co-champion Ole Miss.
Georgia coach David Perno said he knew his Bulldogs were a long shot to make the NCAA field especially after several upsets in various league tournaments this past weekend.
"We needed one more SEC win and they couldn't have played the SEC Tournament without us, but where we were at 11th in the league, the NCAA couldn't have let us in," said Perno.
"We had our chances in a lot of SEC games and were a pitch or two away in a handful of them, but the bottom line is we didn't win enough of them," Perno added. "You look at what Mississippi State did at the SEC Tournament and you think that could've been us. It's unfortunate but I understand and you have to move on."
The Bulldogs end the year with their third best fielding percentage ever at .969, but the hitting and pitching did not produce consistently. Offenisvely, Georgia's .265 team batting average ranked 12th in the SEC while the 4.88 team ERA was 11th. Georgia played one of its most ambitious schedules ever with an SEC-high 27 road games in 2005 going 12-15. Georgia dropped six SEC games when it had leads in the eighth inning or later. Ultimately, the Bulldogs ended the year with a 4-1 win at #11 Tennessee which kept the Volunteers from clinching a share of the SEC title. The Bulldogs played better down the stretch, going 9-9 in their final 18 SEC games including winning series over Auburn, Miss. State and Vanderbilt.
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