After sweeping Mississippi State during Super Regional play this past weekend, Georgia has clinched their spot in the College World Series for the first time since 2008. Georgia will have very little time to celebrate though because waiting for them is a strong test in the first round of the CWS.
The first round of the CWS is identical to the regional round that kicked off the NCAA Tournament. The eight CWS teams will be split into two double elimination brackets with one team advancing from each bracket to the National Championship series.
At this point in the tournament there are only good teams remaining. Everyone is playing great baseball and even teams that are seeded much lower than Georgia are capable of pulling off an upset. But Georgia just can't seem to catch a beak because their first matchup at the College World Series will arguably be against the best team left in the tournament.
Georgia's reward for advancing to the CWS is a matchup against the best team remaining
Georgia is the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The top two seeds (UCLA and Georgia Tech) both failed to make it out of their regional, so Georgia has been the highest seed left throughout Super Regional play.
Even with that being the case though they still haven't been able to avoid playing very difficult opponents.
Mississippi State was the 14-seed and was the best team Georgia could've been matched up with for their Super Regional. The consensus also was the Mississippi State was one of the best teams out of all 16 Super Regional teams as well, so Georgia unfortunately got paired with an extremely difficult matchup.
After sweeping them 2-0 this weekend though it's not going to get any easier because waiting for Georgia for their first game at the CWS is 6-seed Texas.
Texas not only is the highest seeded team possible for Georgia to be matched up with at this point, but they are arguably the hottest teams entering the CWS outside of Georgia themselves. They dominated their regional like Georgia by going 3-0 and just beat 11-seed Oregon in two straight games in the Super Regional this weekend to advance to the CWS.
So just like how Mississippi State was a tough draw for Georgia, Texas may be an even tougher opponent.
What's at stake for Georgia in Game 1 at the College World Series?
Game one for Georgia at the College World Series will be the biggest game of their season. If Georgia wants to advance they can't afford to lose to Texas because that would send them to the loser's bracket and force them to win four games in a row to advance to the National Championship series.
Conversely, if Georgia were to beat Texas they would move on to the winner's bracket and only need to win two more games to move on to the National Championship series.
The College World Series field isn't set yet as a few teams still need to punch their tickets to Omaha on Monday. However, it is looking very likely that 7-seed Alabama and Oklahoma will be the two other teams in Georgia's four-team CWS bracket.
Once the field is set the NCAA will announce the full College World Series schedule, but Georgia will play Texas in their first game and it will either be played on Friday, June 12 or Saturday, June 13.
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