Georgia baseball figures to have one of the top teams in the country this upcoming season, as the Bulldogs are a fixture in the top-10 polls in just about every preseason poll.

And a big reason for that is because of Georgia’s pair of aces in pitchers Emerson Hancock and Cole Wilcox. Hancock is entering is junior season after going 8-3 with 1.99 ERA as a sophomore, while Wilcox earned a spot on the Freshman All-SEC squad after working out of the bullpen and making the occasional start.

Like the Georgia team, those two both enter the season with great expectations. Both pitchers were named to the Baseball America Preseason All-Americans. Hancock was named to the first team, while Wilcox earned a spot on the third team.

Baseball America also declared that Hancock has the best change-up in the country and added that there is the expectation Hancock will be the first pitcher taken in the 2020 MLB Draft.

The Bulldogs open the season on Feb. 14, when they host the Richmond Spiders for a three-game series.

Georgia Women’s Tennis earns win over Notre Dame

The Georgia Women’s tennis team came away with a 5-2 victory over Notre Dame in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. The win means Georgia will advance to ITA Indoor National Championships. The No. 3 Bulldogs won the event last season, giving them the indoor national title in the process.

Against the Fighting Irish, the Bulldogs got off to a quick start thanks to winning the doubles point behind two 6-0 victories. In the singles portion, Georgia earned wins from No. 17 Katarina Jokic, No. 19 Lea Ma, No. 56 Meg Kowalski and Elena Christofi.

Georgia also picked up a 7-0 win over Michigan State on Saturday, giving it a 2-0 record on the season.

The Bulldogs have two matches this week, as they visit Georgia Tech on Thursday before hosting Clemson on Saturday at home. The national team indoors will start on Feb. 5 and conclude on Feb. 10 and will be held in Chicago.

Men’s Tennis splits weekend matches

On the men’s side, the Bulldogs split their two matches this weekend in Starkville, Miss. Georgia got off to a winning start on Saturday in the ITA Kick-Off as it took down Mississippi State 4-1.

But on Sunday, the No. 19 Bulldogs came up just short against the No. 15 South Carolina Gamecocks. Georgia fell 4-3 in a tightly contested match.

“Our kids fought incredibly hard and pushed us to the brink of victory but, in the end, we could not close this one out,” Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz said. “All the credit goes to South Carolina. They earned it. We will need to take this loss as motivation and learn from it.”

Georgia did win the doubles point and got wins in singles from Phillip Henning and Blake Croyder. The Bulldogs and Gamecocks will meet again on March 15, as the two teams will play in Columbia.

The Bulldogs will also travel to Georgia Tech this weekend, as the two teams play in Atlanta on Sunday.

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