Diamond Dawgs Facing Duke For Super Regional Berth

Georgia needs just one win out of two tries against Duke on Monday in order to advance to the Super Regionals.

To do so, the Bulldogs will have to cool the momentum of a Duke team that, like themselves, has been anything but offensively challenged this weekend in Athens.

The Blue Devils stayed alive late Sunday with a 15-6 win against Troy. It followed Saturday’s stunning comeback against Campbell when Duke trailed 8-1 before scoring twice in the seventh and eighth innings prior to pushing 11 runs across to get the win.

In the last ten combined innings, Duke has pushed 30 runs across the plate.

The Bulldogs will look to counter the Blue Devils bats with a pitching staff that will have the advantage of rest on Monday.

While the Bulldogs have played just twice in the regional, winning both games, Duke has played three times, using up more pitching.

Georgia, on the other hand, appears to have a good feel for its pitching depth on Monday, even with Aaron Schunk being day-to-day.

Not only are Emerson Hancock and Will Proctor experienced starting pitchers at the ready going into the regional final for Georgia, but Chase Adkins, Ryan Webb and Tony Locey have not thrown a terribly high amount of pitches either, giving Georgia an apparent edge if it needs to dip into its bullpen or divide a game’s innings up among multiple pitching arms.

One neutralizing factor Monday could be the starting time for the first game. With a 1 p.m. start, the size of the home crowd figures to be smaller and less vocal than on Saturday and Sunday - a possible advantage for Duke.

That said, if Duke wins Monday’s first game to force a winner take all clash on Monday evening, the 5 pm start could enable a good number of Georgia fans to make it to Foley Field around the time of the first pitch.

For fans that are history buffs, Georgia’s chances are good on Monday. The Bulldogs have won all four regionals that they have hosted.