Georgia baseball’s NCAA Tournament run officially begins on Friday as the Diamond Dawgs will play Long Island in their first matchup of the Athens Regional Friday night.
The Bulldogs enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 3 overall seed after winning the SEC regular season and tournament title. They are heavy favorites to advance out of the regional this weekend, but they first have to get past three teams who are ready to shock the baseball world.
A slight change in Georgia’s first game this weekend was announced late Thursday night though as the Bulldogs game was moved two hours sooner in an attempt to avoid inclement weather. This change, while it is minor, throws another wrinkle at the Diamond Dawgs as they gear up for what hopes to be a long NCAA Tournament run.
🚨NCAA ATHENS REGIONAL SCHEDULE UPDATE🚨 pic.twitter.com/xjnY0LxSKz
— Georgia Baseball (@BaseballUGA) May 28, 2026
Georgia vs Long Island NCAA Tournament gametime pushed earlier
No. 1 Georgia and No. 4 Long Island were originally scheduled to play at 7 pm Friday night. First pitch has been moved forward two hours to 5 pm though to avoid inclement weather that is predicted to hit Athens late Friday night.
This minor change has more of an impact on fans traveling to the ballpark then it does the team. A 5 pm start really isn't any different from a 7 pm start, so their pregame routines will hardly be impacted. Fans planning to attend the game though will have to ditch work early, but heading to campus to watch an NCAA Tournament game is a good enough reason to leave work a few hours early.
If anything playing two hours sooner is better for Georgia because they will have more time to rest before their second game of the regional which will be determined based on the result of this first game.
The first game of the Athens Regional was pushed forward as well and will begin at Noon on Friday and will feature No. 2 Boston College No. 3 Liberty.
Georgia has unique opportunity to prove Vegas wrong during Athens Regional
Georgia may be the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament, but they only have the fourth-best odds of winning it all. No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Georgia Tech have better odds, but after them it is No. 6 Texas who has the third-best odds.
That makes no sense because the Longhorns not only were behind Georgia in the SEC standings by 3.5 games, but they also failed to make it out of the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. Georgia also run ruled Arkansas in the championship game after the Razorbacks were the team to knock Texas out of the tournament.
Vegas however doesn't care about any of that, but that is okay with Georgia. They can now use this as extra motivation to prove them wrong and carry them throughout what hopes to be a long tournament run.
The best way to prove Vegas wrong this weekend and force them to change these odds is by winning three straight games by a comfortable margin and advance to the Super Regional which Georgia would get to host in Athens as well.
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