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Georgia eyes its first SEC baseball tourney title

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HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — After nearly sweeping the Southeastern Conference’s individual awards, top-seeded Georgia is hoping to claim a bigger prize: its first league tournament title.

The Bulldogs (35-19-1), who had three second-place finishes in the 1980s, open the double-elimination tournament Wednesday against No. 8 Mississippi (34-22) at Regions Park.

Georgia’s David Perno, the SEC coach of the year, said trying to win the event for the first time is added motivation, along with faring well enough to bolster its case for one of the eight national seeds.

“You can’t talk about winning it,” Perno said. “The first thing you’ve got to try to do is get through your bracket. That’s your first goal.”

The other Wednesday games include No. 2 LSU vs. No. 7 South Carolina; No. 3 Florida vs. No. 6 Vanderbilt, and No. 4 Kentucky vs. No. 5 Alabama.

Led by slugger Gordon Beckham and closer Joshua Fields — named the league’s player and pitcher of the year, respectively, Tuesday — the Bulldogs secured the top seed before the final regular-season series. Auburn’s Hunter Morris was the freshman of the year, avoiding an awards sweep by Georgia.

Second-seeded LSU (39-16-1) and No. 5 Alabama (32-24) might be the hottest teams entering the tournament, which concludes Sunday. The Tigers have won their last 16 games overall and a dozen in a row against SEC teams heading into Wednesday’s matchup with No. 7 South Carolina.

The Tide, meanwhile, has won five SEC series in a row, including the finale against Georgia. Alabama has won seven SEC tournament titles, but starter Miers Quigley’s status is uncertain with back problems.

The format has been tweaked for Saturday’s games. The bracket will be re-seeded to avoid the possibility of having teams play each other three times.