University of Georgia Athletics
Photo by: Conor Dillon/UGAAA
Fun At The Heart Of Bulldogs’ Success
May 25, 2026 | Baseball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Is any group anywhere having more fun than the Georgia baseball team? The Bulldogs are winning a ton, which helps, but their joy and camaraderie as they do so stand out as unique.
Maybe it's the endless specific handshakes that junior Tre Phelps has with his teammates. Maybe it's the power of the team's obsession with Buc-ee's Quattro Sour Power Candy Belts, which they both eat and drape over one another like 8-year-olds at a birthday party. Or maybe it's an ideal collection of players and personalities that have come together this season to see just how much they can achieve as a group.
"The one thing that I've seen with this group of guys, more than anything, is just the willingness to put yourself down for the team goal," redshirt sophomore pitcher Paul Farley said Monday, a day after the Bulldogs won the program's first SEC tournament.
"I mean, there's a lot of guys that came in here thinking they're probably going to start every single day, and that probably aren't playing as much as they'd like, from both the pitching and hitting side, and there's not one person complaining. We're all having fun, we're all cheering guys on that are playing every day. I mean, that's all you can ask for from a team."
Individually, a lot of Bulldogs are having extraordinary seasons. Daniel Jackson led the SEC in home runs (27), batting average (.391) and runs batted in (79), along with runs scored (77), hits (88), total bases (183), slugging percentage (.813), and more, and was voted the SEC Player of the Year. Phelps is also having a stellar season, ranking second in the SEC in batting average (.376), second in runs (74), sixth in total bases (148), and third in slugging percentage (.679). He's also been hit by a pitch a league-high 32 times.
Jackson, Phelps and Rylan Lujo made the All-SEC first team, Kolby Branch earned second-team honors, and Phelps, a third baseman, made the All-Defensive team. Lujo batted .394 in SEC play, the second-highest average in the league. Branch was tied for third on the team with 17 home runs, was third in RBIs (53) and runs scored (52), and he led the Bulldogs with 16 doubles.
Georgia has already earned a pair of trophies after winning the SEC regular-season title by 3.5 games and the conference tournament. But the Bulldogs are far from satisfied.
"The team's in a great spot right now. We're all having fun; the more fun you're going to have, the better you're going to do," said Farley, who earned the victory on the mound Sunday in the finals of the SEC tournament with four scoreless innings.
The Bulldogs (46-12) are the No. 3 national seed in the NCAA tournament, which begins this weekend. Georgia will host the Athens Regional at Foley Field and will face Long Island in its opening game Friday at 7 p.m. The other teams in the double-elimination regional, Liberty and Boston College, will meet Friday at 2.
"Our crowds have been phenomenal all year. It's going to give our guys a little extra adrenaline, which is what you like during these times, and there's nothing like playing at your home field, where you practice, obviously, every single day," said Wes Johnson, Georgia's Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach, who was voted the SEC Coach of the Year.
The Bulldogs have won 14 of their last 15 games, with the only loss coming on May 16 at Auburn, in the regular-season finale. The last snapped an 11-game win streak during which Georgia swept SEC series against Missouri and LSU, and clinched the program's first conference regular-season championship since 2008.
During the SEC tournament in Hoover, Ala., Georgia beat No. 14 Mississippi State, 5-3, in the quarterfinals, rallied from a 6-0 hole against No. 8 Florida in the semifinals, winning 8-7, and then crushed No. 10 Arkansas 11-1, in seven innings, to win the program's first SEC tourney title.
Since dropping two of three games at home against Florida on April 10-12, the only SEC series Georgia lost, the Bulldogs have won 17 of 21 games.
"Winning cures all, but I think we're just a whole lot of guys just trying to get better, and once everybody's trying to get better, then it's just going to be one big goal of the team getting better," Phelps said. "I think we've done that really well. Everybody's focused on what they haven't done as well, whether that was in the fall, the spring, or whether that was an outing, an at-bat, or even a game for that guy, myself included."
A moment of truth, and proof, for who these Bulldogs are came in early April, when then-No. 4 Georgia went to No. 5 Mississippi State and swept the series. Georgia won three tight games, two with a lot of offense and one, a 3-1 victory, in which the pitching and defense were dominant.
"I feel like all three of those were team wins," Phelps said, adding that "everybody stepped up and showed who they were."
The SEC has 12 teams in the NCAA tournament, including five of the top eight seeds. UCLA, which has a record of 51-6 and was ranked No. 1 throughout the regular season, is the No. 1 overall seed. Georgia Tech (48-9) is the No. 2 seed after winning the ACC regular-season and tourney titles. Auburn is the No. 4 seed, followed by North Carolina, Texas, Alabama and Florida.
Staff Writer
Is any group anywhere having more fun than the Georgia baseball team? The Bulldogs are winning a ton, which helps, but their joy and camaraderie as they do so stand out as unique.
Maybe it's the endless specific handshakes that junior Tre Phelps has with his teammates. Maybe it's the power of the team's obsession with Buc-ee's Quattro Sour Power Candy Belts, which they both eat and drape over one another like 8-year-olds at a birthday party. Or maybe it's an ideal collection of players and personalities that have come together this season to see just how much they can achieve as a group.
"The one thing that I've seen with this group of guys, more than anything, is just the willingness to put yourself down for the team goal," redshirt sophomore pitcher Paul Farley said Monday, a day after the Bulldogs won the program's first SEC tournament.
"I mean, there's a lot of guys that came in here thinking they're probably going to start every single day, and that probably aren't playing as much as they'd like, from both the pitching and hitting side, and there's not one person complaining. We're all having fun, we're all cheering guys on that are playing every day. I mean, that's all you can ask for from a team."
Individually, a lot of Bulldogs are having extraordinary seasons. Daniel Jackson led the SEC in home runs (27), batting average (.391) and runs batted in (79), along with runs scored (77), hits (88), total bases (183), slugging percentage (.813), and more, and was voted the SEC Player of the Year. Phelps is also having a stellar season, ranking second in the SEC in batting average (.376), second in runs (74), sixth in total bases (148), and third in slugging percentage (.679). He's also been hit by a pitch a league-high 32 times.
Jackson, Phelps and Rylan Lujo made the All-SEC first team, Kolby Branch earned second-team honors, and Phelps, a third baseman, made the All-Defensive team. Lujo batted .394 in SEC play, the second-highest average in the league. Branch was tied for third on the team with 17 home runs, was third in RBIs (53) and runs scored (52), and he led the Bulldogs with 16 doubles.
Georgia has already earned a pair of trophies after winning the SEC regular-season title by 3.5 games and the conference tournament. But the Bulldogs are far from satisfied.
"The team's in a great spot right now. We're all having fun; the more fun you're going to have, the better you're going to do," said Farley, who earned the victory on the mound Sunday in the finals of the SEC tournament with four scoreless innings.
The Bulldogs (46-12) are the No. 3 national seed in the NCAA tournament, which begins this weekend. Georgia will host the Athens Regional at Foley Field and will face Long Island in its opening game Friday at 7 p.m. The other teams in the double-elimination regional, Liberty and Boston College, will meet Friday at 2.
"Our crowds have been phenomenal all year. It's going to give our guys a little extra adrenaline, which is what you like during these times, and there's nothing like playing at your home field, where you practice, obviously, every single day," said Wes Johnson, Georgia's Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach, who was voted the SEC Coach of the Year.
The Bulldogs have won 14 of their last 15 games, with the only loss coming on May 16 at Auburn, in the regular-season finale. The last snapped an 11-game win streak during which Georgia swept SEC series against Missouri and LSU, and clinched the program's first conference regular-season championship since 2008.
During the SEC tournament in Hoover, Ala., Georgia beat No. 14 Mississippi State, 5-3, in the quarterfinals, rallied from a 6-0 hole against No. 8 Florida in the semifinals, winning 8-7, and then crushed No. 10 Arkansas 11-1, in seven innings, to win the program's first SEC tourney title.
Since dropping two of three games at home against Florida on April 10-12, the only SEC series Georgia lost, the Bulldogs have won 17 of 21 games.
"Winning cures all, but I think we're just a whole lot of guys just trying to get better, and once everybody's trying to get better, then it's just going to be one big goal of the team getting better," Phelps said. "I think we've done that really well. Everybody's focused on what they haven't done as well, whether that was in the fall, the spring, or whether that was an outing, an at-bat, or even a game for that guy, myself included."
A moment of truth, and proof, for who these Bulldogs are came in early April, when then-No. 4 Georgia went to No. 5 Mississippi State and swept the series. Georgia won three tight games, two with a lot of offense and one, a 3-1 victory, in which the pitching and defense were dominant.
"I feel like all three of those were team wins," Phelps said, adding that "everybody stepped up and showed who they were."
The SEC has 12 teams in the NCAA tournament, including five of the top eight seeds. UCLA, which has a record of 51-6 and was ranked No. 1 throughout the regular season, is the No. 1 overall seed. Georgia Tech (48-9) is the No. 2 seed after winning the ACC regular-season and tourney titles. Auburn is the No. 4 seed, followed by North Carolina, Texas, Alabama and Florida.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.
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