Georgia baseball early season report card

If you were to look at the Georgia baseball team and compare it to last year's team midway through the season, you would see similar records.

The 2016 Bulldogs currently maintain a 15-10 record overall and a 2-4 record in the Southeastern Conference. After Georgia faces Kennesaw State Tuesday, it will delve into the remainder of its inner conference play starting with the Crimson Tide of Alabama on Thursday.

Juniors Trevor Kieboom and Skyler Weber have been the voices at the plate for the Bulldogs as they have collected batting averages of .333 and .321 respectively at the halfway point in the season. Fellow junior outfielder Stephen Wrenn isn't too far behind with a .301. Weber leads the team with a total of 35 hits while sophomore outfielder Keegan McGovern leads with seven doubles, five home runs and 22 RBIs, giving him a slugging percentage of .527.

When the Bulldogs outhit their opponents they are 10-2. In addition, when they lead after 6, 7 and 8 innings they are 10-3, 9-1 and 10-1 respectively, giving them a total of 122 total runs on the year, thus far, and 118 for their rivals. An interesting statistic is Georgia is 14-7 when playing during the day and 1-3 when playing under the lights.

On the defensive end, junior right-hander Robert Tyler has been leading the way for the pitching staff with 45 total strikeouts. He has an ERA of 2.78 and a record of 2-1. Freshman lefty Kevin Smith and junior lefty Connor Jones also have both been notable on the mound with their 3-1 records. Another freshman pitcher that has showed some promise is freshman left-hander Addison Albright. Although he has had just a meager four starts, he has retained an ERA of 2.16, allowing only 2 runs through the number of batters Albright has faced.

Where the Bulldogs have struggled is hitting their teammates in when they are on base. Georgia has generated a total of 192 runners left on base. It may not be 209 from what their opponents have accumulated, but more runs scored could have sparked different results for the one or two run games lost and the few others that led to extra innings in closing them out earlier.

Moreover, the defense needs a quick tuneup to avoid further committed errors as the team has recorded 31 errors to their opponent's 23, including sophomore infielder Mitchell Webb who has notched eight on the season.

If there was to be a grade given to the team, it would be a C+. Just average, plain and simple. As stated before, Georgia was in the same position around this time last year and, therefore, not much has changed. The only thing left unanswered is how the team will respond against its inner conference opponents.

There's still a lot of baseball to be played and 15-10 isn't necessarily the worst start. But Georgia is now in the heat of its schedule and it isn't going to be able to slack much as South Carolina (23-2, 6-0) stands in first while the Florida Gators (23-3, 4-2) aren't too far behind in second in the SEC East. Georgia stands in sixth place with only Missouri (13-12, 0-6) underneath it.

Having already taken one in a three game series against Kentucky (17-6, 4-2), the rest of the of SEC East is up for grabs as Georgia will first face SEC West rivals Alabama and Texas A&M and then will meet the rest of its respective division. But the Bulldogs will resume play Tuesday against Kennesaw State at Foley Field in Athens, Georgia, with the first pitch scheduled for 6:00 p.m. ET.