University of Georgia Athletics
Friday, May 8
Athens, Ga.
6 pm
University of Georgia
vs
LSU
SEC-Leading No. 5 Georgia Welcomes LSU To Town
May 07, 2026 | Baseball
ATHENS, GA.-----Fifth-ranked and SEC-leading Georgia (38-11, 18-6 SEC) opens its final home SEC series against LSU (29-21, 9-15 SEC) Friday on SECN+. First pitch will be at 6 p.m. ET and be available on the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network.
Game two of the series will be Saturday at 7 pm ET (SEC Network) as the Bulldogs honor their senior players in a pregame ceremony while Sunday's action begins at 3 pm ET (SEC Network).
The Bulldogs have a 2.5 game lead in the SEC ahead of Texas A&M and Texas who are both 15-8. Georgia is 9-3 in SEC road action and 9-3 at home in league play. Georgia last won the SEC in 2008, going 20-9-1. Georgia's best SEC mark came in 2019 when it finished second at 21-9 as Vanderbilt claimed the crown at 23-7. LSU leads the Georgia series 73-26-2 and last visited Foley Field for a series in 2003, winning two games to one. Georgia's last series win over the Tigers came in 2019 in Athens (2-1). Then, Georgia beat LSU at the 2021 SEC Tournament, lost a 2022 series in Baton Rouge 2-1. The teams last met at the 2024 SEC Tournament with the Tigers taking that contest.
The Bulldogs won their first four SEC series (2-1 over #21 UT, 2-1 @ #21 Texas A&M, 3-0 over USC, 3-0 @ #5 MSU) and then dropped one at home to No. 21 UF (2-1). The second half of the SEC slate began with a road series win over No. 14 Arkansas (2-1) followed by another over No. 17 Ole Miss (2-1). Then, Georgia swept Mizzou here and now finish with LSU followed by No. 6 Auburn on the Plains.
Georgia leads the NCAA with 131 Home Runs and a .622 Slugging Percentage while it is third in Scoring at 9.5 runs/game. The Bulldogs have an SEC-best .325 Batting Average that ranks fourth nationally. Also, Georgia has a .983 Fielding Percentage, which is seventh nationally. Georgia has a 4.83 ERA with six shutouts and tallied 513 strikeouts and 213 walks in 417 innings pitched. For all the talk about their hitting and home runs, the Bulldogs have won eight of their 18 SEC games by holding opponents to two runs or less. Last week in the sweep of Missouri, Georgia limited the Tigers to seven runs in the series.
Bulldog Hitters To Watch
*Junior catcher Daniel Jackson (.373-23-67, 23 SB) ranks in the top six nationally in Home Runs (23), Total Bases (152), RBI (67) and Runs Scored (65). He is on the Midseason Watch Lists for the Golden Spikes Award and the Buster Posey Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award. At #14 Arkansas, he tied a school record by hitting three home runs in a game. He hit .429 with seven RBI in the road series win over the Razorbacks to earn SEC Co-Player of the Week honors. He followed that up by hitting .400-1-3 plus 3 SB in a road series win over #17 Ole Miss. In SEC action, Jackson is batting .350-7-23.
*Sophomore CF Rylan Lujo (.352-7-30) leads the league with a .393 batting average in SEC games, and he's got a .667 slugging percentage in SEC action too.
*Junior 2B Ryan Wynn (.366-5-25) and senior 1B/C Brennan Hudson (.295-16-38) have more extra base hits than singles this year. Wynn's ratio is 16/10 while Hudson is 20/13.
About LSU
*The Tigers, coached by Jay Johnson, are batting .286 with 80 home runs and 37 stolen bases in 49 attempts. LSU is fielding .965. The Tigers have a 5.05 ERA with 592 strikeouts and 236 walks. Opponents are batting .228. Last week, they swept South Carolina, outscoring them 20-4 to snap a nine-game SEC losing streak. This past Tuesday, they defeated Tulane to run their winning streak to five games.
Georgia-LSU Rotation
Game 1: Joey Volchko (7-2, 3.75 ERA), RHP, Jr., vs. William Schmidt (5-4, 3.90 ERA), RHP, So.
Game 2: Dylan Vigue (4-1, 2.35 ERA), RHP, Jr., vs. Marcos Paz (1-2, 6.08 ERA), RHP, Fr.
Game 3: TBA vs. TBA
Quotes From Thursday Media Session
Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson
On finishing the season strong…
"You always want to finish strong. You want to stay focused. You need to be playing really good baseball this time of year. It doesn't always mean you can win, just because the league is so tough. You can run into a guy or have a hiccup here or there. If you look, there have been some games where we have hit a lot of balls over 100mph and haven't scored. You want to be playing good ball. We are not going to talk about the race or the standings. That is for everybody else. You get caught up looking at that stuff, then you lose focus of what's at hand, which is Friday night."
#3 Daniel Jackson | Jr. | C
On the upcoming series against LSU…
"You can't really look at what the past has been like for them. They're going to give all they have to give us their best baseball this upcoming weekend. They're fighting for their own playoff chances. So, we just have to want it more."
#8 Rylan Lujo | So. | OF/INF
On his successful performance against conference opponents...
"I feel like I've always performed against better competition, so maybe that's why I've always kind of been a little bit under the radar. That's where I feel like I kind of thrive is when the competition is best. I'm not really the best showcase player. I don't have the most power and don't have the best arm or speed, but everything I do is above average, and you can really see that when it comes to better competition."
Links To Follow The Bulldog Series
Friday @ 6 pm ET
Radio/TV: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5003&type=Live
SECN+ (Matt Stewart & David Toms):
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847292?gameId=401847292&sourceLang=en&om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults
Live Stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=631903
Saturday @ 7 pm ET
Radio: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5004&type=Live
SEC Network (Dave Neal & Todd Walker): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847293?gameId=401847293&sourceLang=en&om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=631904
Sunday @ 3 pm ET
Radio: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5005&type=Live
SEC Network (Dave Neal & Todd Walker): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847294?gameId=401847294&sourceLang=en&om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=631905
Foley Field In 2026
· Foley Field Gates Open 1 hour before first pitch
· Tickets –Limited Availability; Also Available on SeatGeek: https://seatgeek.com/georgia-bulldogs-baseball-tickets
· UGA STUDENTS: Free Admission and please enter at 3rd Base Gate
· Promotions For LSU Series:
· Friday: First 1,000 fans receive a Jonathan Cannon shirsey
· Saturday: First 1,000 fans receive a Tre Phelps designed t-shirt; Senior Recognition, Senior Parents First Pitch
· Sunday: First 750 fans receive a pack of Georgia senior baseball player cards
FOLLOW THE BULLDOGS: For the latest Georgia baseball news, visit www.georgiadogs.com and follow the Bulldogs on X (@BaseballUGA), Facebook (@GeorgiaBaseball) and Instagram (@baseballuga).
Game two of the series will be Saturday at 7 pm ET (SEC Network) as the Bulldogs honor their senior players in a pregame ceremony while Sunday's action begins at 3 pm ET (SEC Network).
The Bulldogs have a 2.5 game lead in the SEC ahead of Texas A&M and Texas who are both 15-8. Georgia is 9-3 in SEC road action and 9-3 at home in league play. Georgia last won the SEC in 2008, going 20-9-1. Georgia's best SEC mark came in 2019 when it finished second at 21-9 as Vanderbilt claimed the crown at 23-7. LSU leads the Georgia series 73-26-2 and last visited Foley Field for a series in 2003, winning two games to one. Georgia's last series win over the Tigers came in 2019 in Athens (2-1). Then, Georgia beat LSU at the 2021 SEC Tournament, lost a 2022 series in Baton Rouge 2-1. The teams last met at the 2024 SEC Tournament with the Tigers taking that contest.
The Bulldogs won their first four SEC series (2-1 over #21 UT, 2-1 @ #21 Texas A&M, 3-0 over USC, 3-0 @ #5 MSU) and then dropped one at home to No. 21 UF (2-1). The second half of the SEC slate began with a road series win over No. 14 Arkansas (2-1) followed by another over No. 17 Ole Miss (2-1). Then, Georgia swept Mizzou here and now finish with LSU followed by No. 6 Auburn on the Plains.
Georgia leads the NCAA with 131 Home Runs and a .622 Slugging Percentage while it is third in Scoring at 9.5 runs/game. The Bulldogs have an SEC-best .325 Batting Average that ranks fourth nationally. Also, Georgia has a .983 Fielding Percentage, which is seventh nationally. Georgia has a 4.83 ERA with six shutouts and tallied 513 strikeouts and 213 walks in 417 innings pitched. For all the talk about their hitting and home runs, the Bulldogs have won eight of their 18 SEC games by holding opponents to two runs or less. Last week in the sweep of Missouri, Georgia limited the Tigers to seven runs in the series.
Bulldog Hitters To Watch
*Junior catcher Daniel Jackson (.373-23-67, 23 SB) ranks in the top six nationally in Home Runs (23), Total Bases (152), RBI (67) and Runs Scored (65). He is on the Midseason Watch Lists for the Golden Spikes Award and the Buster Posey Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award. At #14 Arkansas, he tied a school record by hitting three home runs in a game. He hit .429 with seven RBI in the road series win over the Razorbacks to earn SEC Co-Player of the Week honors. He followed that up by hitting .400-1-3 plus 3 SB in a road series win over #17 Ole Miss. In SEC action, Jackson is batting .350-7-23.
*Currently, there are only two players in NCAA Division 1 that have hit at least 20 home runs and have 20 stolen bases this season: Georgia's National Player of the Year candidate junior catcher Daniel Jackson (23-23) and Farleigh Dickinson sophomore outfielder Hunter Ray (26-22). Jackson is the first catcher in SEC history to post a 20-20 season and just the fifth overall player in the history of the league. Before Jackson, the last SEC player to register a 20-20 season was Arkansas outfielder Andrew Benintendi (20-24) in 2015 when he swept all the national honors including the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy.
*Junior 3B Tre Phelps (.372-17-47) ranks second in the nation with a school record 28 Hit-By-Pitches. He is seventh in Runs Scored (64). Phelps is on the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List. Earlier this year, Jackson had a team-best 21-game hitting streak while Phelps carried one over from last year that stretched to 27, one game shy of the school record.*Sophomore CF Rylan Lujo (.352-7-30) leads the league with a .393 batting average in SEC games, and he's got a .667 slugging percentage in SEC action too.
*Junior 2B Ryan Wynn (.366-5-25) and senior 1B/C Brennan Hudson (.295-16-38) have more extra base hits than singles this year. Wynn's ratio is 16/10 while Hudson is 20/13.
About LSU
*The Tigers, coached by Jay Johnson, are batting .286 with 80 home runs and 37 stolen bases in 49 attempts. LSU is fielding .965. The Tigers have a 5.05 ERA with 592 strikeouts and 236 walks. Opponents are batting .228. Last week, they swept South Carolina, outscoring them 20-4 to snap a nine-game SEC losing streak. This past Tuesday, they defeated Tulane to run their winning streak to five games.
Georgia-LSU Rotation
Game 1: Joey Volchko (7-2, 3.75 ERA), RHP, Jr., vs. William Schmidt (5-4, 3.90 ERA), RHP, So.
Game 2: Dylan Vigue (4-1, 2.35 ERA), RHP, Jr., vs. Marcos Paz (1-2, 6.08 ERA), RHP, Fr.
Game 3: TBA vs. TBA
Quotes From Thursday Media Session
Ike Cousins Head Baseball Coach Wes Johnson
On finishing the season strong…
"You always want to finish strong. You want to stay focused. You need to be playing really good baseball this time of year. It doesn't always mean you can win, just because the league is so tough. You can run into a guy or have a hiccup here or there. If you look, there have been some games where we have hit a lot of balls over 100mph and haven't scored. You want to be playing good ball. We are not going to talk about the race or the standings. That is for everybody else. You get caught up looking at that stuff, then you lose focus of what's at hand, which is Friday night."
#3 Daniel Jackson | Jr. | C
On the upcoming series against LSU…
"You can't really look at what the past has been like for them. They're going to give all they have to give us their best baseball this upcoming weekend. They're fighting for their own playoff chances. So, we just have to want it more."
#8 Rylan Lujo | So. | OF/INF
On his successful performance against conference opponents...
"I feel like I've always performed against better competition, so maybe that's why I've always kind of been a little bit under the radar. That's where I feel like I kind of thrive is when the competition is best. I'm not really the best showcase player. I don't have the most power and don't have the best arm or speed, but everything I do is above average, and you can really see that when it comes to better competition."
Links To Follow The Bulldog Series
Friday @ 6 pm ET
Radio/TV: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5003&type=Live
SECN+ (Matt Stewart & David Toms):
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847292?gameId=401847292&sourceLang=en&om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults
Live Stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=631903
Saturday @ 7 pm ET
Radio: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5004&type=Live
SEC Network (Dave Neal & Todd Walker): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847293?gameId=401847293&sourceLang=en&om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=631904
Sunday @ 3 pm ET
Radio: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5005&type=Live
SEC Network (Dave Neal & Todd Walker): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847294?gameId=401847294&sourceLang=en&om-navmethod=espn%3Aglobalsearch%3Aresults
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=631905
Foley Field In 2026
· Foley Field Gates Open 1 hour before first pitch
· Tickets –Limited Availability; Also Available on SeatGeek: https://seatgeek.com/georgia-bulldogs-baseball-tickets
· UGA STUDENTS: Free Admission and please enter at 3rd Base Gate
· Promotions For LSU Series:
· Friday: First 1,000 fans receive a Jonathan Cannon shirsey
· Saturday: First 1,000 fans receive a Tre Phelps designed t-shirt; Senior Recognition, Senior Parents First Pitch
· Sunday: First 750 fans receive a pack of Georgia senior baseball player cards
FOLLOW THE BULLDOGS: For the latest Georgia baseball news, visit www.georgiadogs.com and follow the Bulldogs on X (@BaseballUGA), Facebook (@GeorgiaBaseball) and Instagram (@baseballuga).
Players Mentioned
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C/OF
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INF
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INF/OF
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RHP
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RHP
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INF
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