Georgia 2025 SEC Baseball Tournament Exit Interview

(SI photo)

By Jake Mastroianni

SEC Tournament Results: L, 3-2 vs. Oklahoma

Record: 42-15

The job head coach Wes Johnson has done at Georgia in such a short time is truly remarkable. After winning over 40 games in his first season with the Bulldogs and hosting the Athens regional, he proved it was no fluke in 2025 by putting up similar results. 

And he’s still yet to build a dominant pitching staff, which was his calling card as an assistant. It looked like that would be the case this year, but many of his top starters were injured coming in – namely Charlie Goldstein, JT Quinn, and Kolten Smith. 

And his top returner in the rotation, Leighton Finley, had several ups-and-downs throughout the year. 

Brian Curley was their top arm out of the bullpen to begin the season, but Johnson ultimately moved him to the rotation and that settled things there. Curley finished the regular season with a 3.21 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in 61.2 innings with 78 strikeouts. 

In the end, the Bulldogs finished 12th in the conference with a 4.86 ERA, but it wasn’t for a lack of stuff as they had a staff K/9 of 11.15. Their biggest issue on the mound was the free passes with a 4.73 BB/9 (third worst in the SEC). 

The offense really carried Georgia early as Johnson tried to figure out the pitching staff. They finished with the third highest slugging percentage in SEC games thanks to a conference-high 69 home runs. Overall, they led the country with 132 home runs during the regular season. 

It was also a very patient offense drawing 290 walks, turning those home runs into two and three-run shots. 

Transfer Robbie Burnett took charge offensively this season hitting .318 with a 1.224 OPS in the regular season to go along with 12 doubles, 20 home runs, 66 RBI, and 17 stolen bases. 

Key returning players Slate Alford, Kolby Branch, and Tre Phelps had big years as well. 

But it was Ryland Zaborowski that really transformed the lineup, hitting .376 with a 1.312 OPS, 16 home runs, and 60 RBI in 41 games. Unfortunately, he got hurt mid-way through the SEC slate and the offense suffered. 

What’s next

With 18 conference wins and the number 1 RPI at the end of the regular season, Georgia is a lock to host a regional and be a top eight seed entering the NCAA Tournament. 

While last year there was the feeling of, “I’m glad we’re in this spot.” This year it will be all business as they try to make a deep run. 

And it’s key that they’ll play the regional and potential super regional at home where they were 29-4 this year, and where the ballpark plays to their advantage. The only time this group struggled this year was on the road against great pitching staffs who don’t walk a lot of batters. 

Wes Johnson after Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to Oklahoma in the SEC Tournament: 

The biggest difference is we can pitch a little better. We're going to have to figure out the offense piece. You go look, yeah, you can give -- Witherspoon has been really good against us twice, like really good. But good teams find a way to grind it out and get off some better swings than we did. We're going to have to figure that piece out, and that's your -- last year, you're running Condon and Collins up there, and it doesn't matter who's pitching. It's reversed. Those two guys are on base. They can hit anybody in the country and do damage.

We've got to figure out the offensive piece. What did we give up tonight, 8 hits, struck out 10, walked 3. This team has the lowest -- obviously, I look at a lot of different numbers. This team has the lowest chase rate in our league. Has the lowest swing-and-miss rate in our league, so if you just strike him out 10 times, you had to do something. With that being said, I feel good with our pitching. We've got to get runs across the plate against quality arms, which has obviously held us down this year.

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