University of Georgia Athletics
Thursday, April 2
Starkville, Miss.
7 PM ET
University of Georgia
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Mississippi State
Top Five Showdown In Starkville Begins Thursday
April 01, 2026 | Baseball
ATHENS, GA.-----Fourth-ranked Georgia returns to SEC action Thursday in Starkville against fifth-ranked Mississippi State as co-leaders in the Southeastern Conference. First pitch will be at 7 p.m. ET and be available on SECN+ and the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network.
Game two of the series will be Friday at 7 p.m. ET (SECN+) and the final game of the series on Saturday will begin at 2 p.m. ET (SECN+).
Georgia (24-6), ranked as high as No. 4 in the national polls this week, is tied for the SEC lead with MSU (25-4) and Texas (24-4) with each owning a 7-2 mark in league play. MSU is 18-0 at home this season. Last week, Georgia swept South Carolina in Athens while MSU swept No. 18 Ole Miss in Oxford. Incidentally, Georgia handed No. 21 Texas A&M its first two home losses of the season a couple of weeks ago as the Aggies entered the Georgia series with a 14-0 mark at Blue Bell Park.
A majority of Georgia's coaching staff has MSU connections. Georgia's Ike Cousins head baseball coach Wes Johnson served as MSU's pitching coach in 2016 when the Bulldogs won the SEC regular season title advanced to an NCAA Super Regional. Georgia assistant head coach Will Coggin, who graduated from Booneville (Miss.) High School, played for MSU in 2007-08 and was an assistant coach from 2015-17. Assistant coach Nick Ammirati played for MSU in 2012-13 including the starting catcher for the 2013 squad that was the College World Series (CWS) runner-up.
On a related note, MSU's baseball complex, known as Dudy-Noble Field at Polk-Dement Stadium, is in part named for the legendary Ron Polk. Coach Polk served as Georgia's head coach from 2000-01 including leading the red and black Bulldogs to the 2001 SEC title and an appearance at the CWS.
Georgia-MSU Pitching Rotation
Game 1: Joey Volchko (5-0, 3.93 ERA), RHP, Jr., vs. Charlie Foster (0-0, 4.24 ERA), LHP, So.
Game 2: Dylan Vigue (3-1, 3.03 ERA), RHP, Jr., vs. Tomas Valincius (6-0, 0.91 ERA), LHP, So.
Game 3: TBA vs. Duke Stone (5-0, 3.66 ERA), RHP, So.
*The Bulldogs have a 4.36 ERA with 320 strikeouts and 119 walks. Opponents are hitting .233.
*The Bulldog trio of Caden Aoki, Matt Scott and Justin Byrd have been elite in SEC action. Aoki is 0-0, 0.90 ERA in 10 IP, Scott is 3-0, 1.50 ERA in 12 IP and Byrd is 2-1, 2.19 ERA, 2 SV in 12.1 IP.
*MSU has a 3.14 ERA with 329 strikeouts and 94 walks. Opponents are hitting .205.
Georgia Leads Nation In Home Runs And Slugging Percentage
*Georgia has an NCAA-leading 87 home runs and .649 slugging percentage plus is in the top five in fielding percentage (.986). Also, the Bulldogs rank in the top 10 in runs (289), on-base percentage (.456), HPB (69), scoring (9.6) and batting average (.326).
*Junior C Daniel Jackson, who was recently named to the Midseason Watch List for the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher Award, leads the team with 16 home runs, followed by senior SS Kolby Branch with 13, junior 3B Tre Phelps is next with 12 and senior 1B/C Brennan Hudson rounds out the group in double digits with 11. Branch ranks tied for seventh in Georgia history with 43 home runs and has 49 for his career counting the six he had for Baylor in 2023.
*Georgia is averaging an NCAA-leading 2.90 Home Runs per Game (HR/G) in 2026. The 2025 squad averaged 2.40 HR/G while the 2024 team averaged 2.52 HR/G. Georgia's past two squads ranked 1-2 in school history in HR, Last season, the Bulldogs had a school-record eight players with double-digit HR as the team finished with 144. In 2024 when Georgia set a school mark with 151 HR, the Bulldogs had six players with 10+ HR including an NCAA-best 37 by Golden Spikes Award winner Charlie Condon who was the third overall pick in the MLB Draft that year (Colorado Rockies).
*MSU is batting .336 with 47 home runs and fielding .981. They average 9.8 runs per game.
Links To Follow The Bulldog Series
Thursday @ 7 p.m. ET
Radio/TV: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5012&type=Live
SECN+ (Bart Gregory & Charlie Winfield): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847279?gameId=401847279
Live stats link: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=633266
Friday @ 7 p.m. ET
Radio: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5013&type=Live
SECN+ (Bart Gregory & Charlie Winfield): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847280?gameId=401847280
Live stats link: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=633267
Saturday @ 2 p.m. ET
Radio: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5014&type=Live
SECN+ (Bart Gregory & Charlie Winfield): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847281?gameId=401847281
Live stats link: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=633268
FOLLOW THE BULLDOGS: For the latest Georgia baseball news, visit www.georgiadogs.com and follow the Bulldogs on X (@BaseballUGA), Facebook (@GeorgiaBaseball) and Instagram (@baseballuga).
Game two of the series will be Friday at 7 p.m. ET (SECN+) and the final game of the series on Saturday will begin at 2 p.m. ET (SECN+).
Georgia (24-6), ranked as high as No. 4 in the national polls this week, is tied for the SEC lead with MSU (25-4) and Texas (24-4) with each owning a 7-2 mark in league play. MSU is 18-0 at home this season. Last week, Georgia swept South Carolina in Athens while MSU swept No. 18 Ole Miss in Oxford. Incidentally, Georgia handed No. 21 Texas A&M its first two home losses of the season a couple of weeks ago as the Aggies entered the Georgia series with a 14-0 mark at Blue Bell Park.
A majority of Georgia's coaching staff has MSU connections. Georgia's Ike Cousins head baseball coach Wes Johnson served as MSU's pitching coach in 2016 when the Bulldogs won the SEC regular season title advanced to an NCAA Super Regional. Georgia assistant head coach Will Coggin, who graduated from Booneville (Miss.) High School, played for MSU in 2007-08 and was an assistant coach from 2015-17. Assistant coach Nick Ammirati played for MSU in 2012-13 including the starting catcher for the 2013 squad that was the College World Series (CWS) runner-up.
On a related note, MSU's baseball complex, known as Dudy-Noble Field at Polk-Dement Stadium, is in part named for the legendary Ron Polk. Coach Polk served as Georgia's head coach from 2000-01 including leading the red and black Bulldogs to the 2001 SEC title and an appearance at the CWS.
Georgia-MSU Pitching Rotation
Game 1: Joey Volchko (5-0, 3.93 ERA), RHP, Jr., vs. Charlie Foster (0-0, 4.24 ERA), LHP, So.
Game 2: Dylan Vigue (3-1, 3.03 ERA), RHP, Jr., vs. Tomas Valincius (6-0, 0.91 ERA), LHP, So.
Game 3: TBA vs. Duke Stone (5-0, 3.66 ERA), RHP, So.
*The Bulldogs have a 4.36 ERA with 320 strikeouts and 119 walks. Opponents are hitting .233.
*The Bulldog trio of Caden Aoki, Matt Scott and Justin Byrd have been elite in SEC action. Aoki is 0-0, 0.90 ERA in 10 IP, Scott is 3-0, 1.50 ERA in 12 IP and Byrd is 2-1, 2.19 ERA, 2 SV in 12.1 IP.
*MSU has a 3.14 ERA with 329 strikeouts and 94 walks. Opponents are hitting .205.
Georgia Leads Nation In Home Runs And Slugging Percentage
*Georgia has an NCAA-leading 87 home runs and .649 slugging percentage plus is in the top five in fielding percentage (.986). Also, the Bulldogs rank in the top 10 in runs (289), on-base percentage (.456), HPB (69), scoring (9.6) and batting average (.326).
*Junior C Daniel Jackson, who was recently named to the Midseason Watch List for the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher Award, leads the team with 16 home runs, followed by senior SS Kolby Branch with 13, junior 3B Tre Phelps is next with 12 and senior 1B/C Brennan Hudson rounds out the group in double digits with 11. Branch ranks tied for seventh in Georgia history with 43 home runs and has 49 for his career counting the six he had for Baylor in 2023.
*Georgia is averaging an NCAA-leading 2.90 Home Runs per Game (HR/G) in 2026. The 2025 squad averaged 2.40 HR/G while the 2024 team averaged 2.52 HR/G. Georgia's past two squads ranked 1-2 in school history in HR, Last season, the Bulldogs had a school-record eight players with double-digit HR as the team finished with 144. In 2024 when Georgia set a school mark with 151 HR, the Bulldogs had six players with 10+ HR including an NCAA-best 37 by Golden Spikes Award winner Charlie Condon who was the third overall pick in the MLB Draft that year (Colorado Rockies).
*MSU is batting .336 with 47 home runs and fielding .981. They average 9.8 runs per game.
Links To Follow The Bulldog Series
Thursday @ 7 p.m. ET
Radio/TV: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5012&type=Live
SECN+ (Bart Gregory & Charlie Winfield): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847279?gameId=401847279
Live stats link: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=633266
Friday @ 7 p.m. ET
Radio: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5013&type=Live
SECN+ (Bart Gregory & Charlie Winfield): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847280?gameId=401847280
Live stats link: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=633267
Saturday @ 2 p.m. ET
Radio: 960TheRef (Jeff Dantzler & David Johnston): https://georgiadogs.com/watch/?Live=5014&type=Live
SECN+ (Bart Gregory & Charlie Winfield): https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401847281?gameId=401847281
Live stats link: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=633268
FOLLOW THE BULLDOGS: For the latest Georgia baseball news, visit www.georgiadogs.com and follow the Bulldogs on X (@BaseballUGA), Facebook (@GeorgiaBaseball) and Instagram (@baseballuga).
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