Georgia
‘We’re champs’: How Georgia baseball soaked up first SEC title in 18 years
The Georgia baseball team had long since poured out of the Foley Field home dugout and the water bottles that were thrown on the field in jubilation had been cleaned up.
The Bulldogs celebration that carried into center field after a 13-8 victory on Saturday night over LSU on May 9 had ended and players had doused coach Wes Johnson with blue sports drink.
Now, some 20 minutes later, it was postgame photo time for the freshly minted 2026 SEC regular season champions.
They gathered in front of the spot on the right field wall where the previous seven seasons of Georgia SEC championships were listed, the last in 2008. Above them on the video board was a graphic that recognized this year’s team as SEC champions.
“Watching the program grow in such a shot amount of time, it’s awesome,” said pitcher Paul Farley, who has been with the Bulldogs for all three seasons with Johnson and got the win in relief Saturday. “We’ve got four SEC games left and to be able to hang that up there the SEC champs already it’s amazing.”
Farley was speaking figuratively because the 2026 numbers weren’t on the outfield fence just yet.
Fifth-ranked Georgia (40-11, 20-6 SEC) still has a chance to put a College World Series trip up there in left field for the first time since 2008 and in a best case scenario add another national championship year in right field with the 1990 season.
“SEC champs is great, but obviously we want to do bigger and better things,” Farley said.
LSU, the team that won it all last season, was still around having a postgame talk on the artificial turf field long after the game ended.
Johnson was with LSU in 2023 as pitching coach when it won another College World Series.
“It’s massive,” Johnson said of this latest championship. “Anytime you can win this league, man, it’s so hard. Then win it outright. It’s something you want to check off on your list of things you’ve ever accomplished. It’s 10 weekends of just meat house grinding.”
Johnson said he didn’t know that the dominoes had fallen Saturday to set up Georgia being able to clinch except that he saw that Texas lost at Tennessee as the result flashed on the scoreboard.
Texas A&M also lost twice at Ole Miss to set up the clinch for Georgia.
“I’m calling pitches, I’m locked in,” Johnson said.
He said assistant coach Will Coggin told him when the game ended that ‘We’re champs.’”
Many of the players knew.
“We had a few inside operatives, I’d say, tell us,” Farley said.
Shortstop Kolby Branch said he didn’t know “until the water bottles started flying.”
Branch said another Georgia team loaded with transfers grew closer in the fall and built relationships that have turned into wins this season.
Johnson said winning the regular season title in his third season as coach in the age of the transfer portal and NIL “means a lot.”
Johnson mentioned Farley, Branch and Tre Phelps being at Georgia for all three of his seasons.
“Seeing where we were in the first fall, we forget this used to be dirt and grass,” Johnson said standing on on turf field. “And we didn’t have the cool building and we only had one batting cage, all the stuff we’ve been able to do since we’ve been here. The other side is just understanding true belief and understanding what guys can do.”
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Storm activity is expected to fire up around midday, starting inland from the Gulf sea breeze. From there, storms will track eastward at 20-25 mph, and that faster movement is actually good news for flooding concerns.
Some minor, temporary flooding is possible through tonight, especially in low-lying areas and spots that typically flood during heavy rain events.
The best chances for stronger storms and heavier rainfall will be north and near I-10 during the afternoon and evening hours.
The Weather Prediction Center has placed roughly the northern two-thirds of the area under a marginal risk of excessive rainfall.
What to expect through the night
Rain chances will stay elevated into the evening but should taper off after midnight. However, inland Northeast Florida could see a late round of showers or storms develop due to enhanced west coast sea breeze.
Gusty winds and frequent lightning can’t be ruled out. Always have your indoor plan ready to go for shelter access.
Cooler temperatures, patchy fog round out the forecast
High temperatures will run below average, topping out in the mid-to-upper 80s. Overnight lows will range from the upper 60s to near 70 degrees across inland Southeast Georgia, with mid-70s expected closer to the Atlantic coast.
Patchy fog is expected early this morning and again Sunday morning. Brief periods of dense fog are possible, so drivers should use caution on the roads during those early morning hours.
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Georgia baseball will resume its NCAA Athens Regional game with Long Island at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 29, after persistent rain—heavy at times—forced the suspension of the game.
The Bulldogs have a commanding 15-1 lead with nobody out in the bottom of the sixth.
The teams and some fans waited out a delay that started 7:14 p.m.
The game was suspended officially at 9:06 p.m. Long Island players were already grabbing their equipment in the dugout to depart for the team hotel before then.
The winner of Georgia-LIU will play No. 3 seed Liberty Saturday in the double-elimination tournament in a game scheduled for 5 p.m.
The loser will play No. 2 seed Boston College at noon.
The No. 3 national seed Bulldogs hit six homers before the game was delayed due to heavy rain.
There was a 53 percent chance of rain at 9 a.m. Saturday, according to weather.com, decreasing to 17 percent at 11 a.m., but there’s a threat of storms in the afternoon.
The Georgia Public Service Commission this week approved a plan expected to reduce utility bills for Georgia Power customers by a few dollars a month.
The commission said the change will generate about $285 million in total annual savings for Georgia Power customers, or roughly $50 per year — about $4.04 per month — for the average residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month.
The Georgia PSC voted Thursday to lower overall rates as part of the approved plan.
Georgia Power Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Tyler Cook said the decision will provide “real savings for Georgia families and businesses as the heat of summer begins and energy use increases.”
“At Georgia Power, our teams work every day to run our business efficiently and keep reliable and affordable energy flowing to our customers,” Cook said.
Cook said the outcome followed months of work between Georgia Power and PSC staff, including reviews, public hearings and input from residents and intervenors.
The approved plan is tied to a stipulated agreement reached earlier this month involving two cases filed with the PSC in February, the Fuel Cost Recovery case and the Storm Cost Recovery case. Those cases addressed recovering fuel costs used to generate electricity and expenses tied to restoring power after storms.
Georgia Power said its rates remain, on average, about 15% below the national average and that it is still on track to provide additional annual savings of about $102 per year for typical residential customers beginning in 2029.
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