The key to the 2019 NCAA Division I baseball national championship may very well be found in the foothills of northeast Georgia.
The Regionals for the annual showcase tournament get underway Friday in locales all over the nation from Los Angeles to West Virginia to Atlanta and Athens. There are 16 regional sites with each consisting of a four-team field playing a double-elimination format. The 16 winners will then advance to the Super Regionals, a best-of-three format at the site of the higher seeded team, with the winners of the Super Regionals advancing to the College World Series next month in Omaha, Neb.
Three Georgia programs — Georgia, Georgia Tech and Mercer — will be vying for the national title. And all three feature players from northeast Georgia area programs.
Georgia and Mercer will face off at 7 p.m. Friday in both teams' opening games in the Athens Regional at Foley Field. Georgia Tech will take on Florida A&M at 7 p.m at Russ Chandler Stadium in the Atlanta Regional. Florida State and Florida Atlantic will open the Athens Regional at noon while Coastal Carolina will play Auburn at noon to open the Atlanta Regional.
Georgia has former Dawson County standout Tucker Maxwell and former Buford southpaw Justin Glover. Georgia Tech has former Flowery Branch hurler Jonathan Hughes, former Buford standout twins in Austin Wilhite and Nick Wilhite and Wolves’ right-hander Keyton Gibson, along with former Jefferson pitcher Micah Carpenter. Mercer has another former Buford pitcher in Kevin Coulter and former West Hall standout Jeffrey Jenkins, who was redshirted and is not on the traveling team.
Georgia is making its first back-to-back NCAA appearances in a decade while the Jackets are making their first NCAA appearance since 2011. Mercer is in for the first time since 2015 but it is the Bears’ fourth appearance in the past 10 seasons.
Longtime Buford baseball coach Tony Wolfe, who stepped down from the Wolves after the 2017 season and is now the Buford athletics director, is not surprised. In fact, the five players from the Wolves’ 2015 Class 4A state title team figure to play prominent roles for the three teams.
“It’s good to see UGA and Tech both be back in the mix again and they’re doing it with a lot of northeast Georgia kids,” Wolfe said. “There are a lot of strong baseball programs in this area. Some great coaches and great players all over northeast Georgia. I think it just says volumes for this area to see this many guys having such big impacts on their teams.”
Former Flowery Branch and Johnson baseball coach Jimmy Lawler, now the Falcons athletics director, said he has wondered what took so long for Division I college coaches and pro scouts to discover northeast Georgia.
“There has been very good baseball in this area for as long as I’ve been in the area, which goes back nearly 30 years, and I think for a long time it was overlooked,” Lawler said. “But I’ve noticed over the last 5 to 10 years that the big-time colleges and the pros are beginning to see the talent that is in this area. You can turn on your TV this weekend and you’ll see a lot of area guys playing big roles for their teams. That will be a great showcase for this area and the programs every time they mention a (high) school.”
The Yellow Jackets are the overall No. 3 national seed while the Bulldogs are the No. 4 national seed. Both will play host to Regionals starting Friday and Super Regionals next week, if they advance.
Georgia Tech has been building back to national prominence and has ridden the northeast Georgia talent that Tech coach Danny Hall has assembled.
Junior Nick Wilhite (CF) is having a breakout season for the Jackets. He’s batting.320 (third-best on the team) in a team-high 58 starts. He has 63 hits (tied for third-most) with 7 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homers, and 39 RBI. He has swiped 8 of 12 bases, which also is third-most on the squad.
Brother and second baseman Austin Wilhite, a former freshman All-American, has 56 starts with a .270 batting average with 54 hits, 11 doubles, 2 triples, 1 homer, 30 RBI, and a team-high 12 stolen bases.
Former Flowery Branch standout Jonathan Hughes, a redshirt junior, also is having his best season in Atlanta in 2019. Hughes is second on the team in wins (8-2, 0 SV) with a 5.29 ERA in 24 appearances (second-most on the team) out of the bullpen. He has pitched a bullpen-high 49 1/3 innings, which is fourth-most overall, and yielded 60 hits and 23 walks while fanning 44.
Another former Buford hurler, senior Keyton Gibson, is third on the Jackets in appearances with 18 and has been tough allowing just a .200 opponents batting average on the season. He has pitched 26 2/3 innings allowing just 18 hits while walking 18 and fanning 29. Senior Micah Carpenter, a former Jefferson standout (1-1, 1 SV, 5.09 ERA, 23.0 IP, 28 H, 11 BB, 33 K, .292 b/avg) is third on the team in appearances.
Both Wolf and Lawler stated they believe area players could be deciding factors in the Jackets’ ability to move past the Regionals.
“For me, the Wilhites’ could have the biggest impacts for Tech,” Wolfe said. “They’re everyday players and their defensive play can be game-changers. Both can steal bases and Nick has really improved his offensive game from the first two years. They will be fun to watch.”
“The ERAs of some their guys look high but the ACC has some tremendous offensive teams so I think you’re going to see what guys like Jonathan can really do,” Lawler said. “Jonathan has overcome so much from his first year and has always had D-I stuff. The other two guys (Gibson and Carpenter) also could play big roles and can really pitch.”
Georgia, meanwhile, features a pair of guys who also are having their best seasons in Athens in Maxwell and Glover.
Maxwell, a junior, has patrolled centerfield at a .991 fielding clip with just 1 error and 1 assist. He has the fifth-most starts (48) with a .228 batting average, which is the highest in his three seasons. He has smacked 10 homers, which is second on the team, with 31 RBI (sixth on the team) and has yet to ground into a double play to go with a team-high 20 stolen bases.
Glover, also a junior, is having a breakthrough campaign for the Bulldogs. His 2.67 ERA is fifth-best on a staff with seven guys with sub-3.00 ERAs on the team. He leads the team in appearances with 24 after seeing action in just 18 total games in his first two seasons. He has fanned 27 in 27 innings and has yielded a team-low .157 opponents batting average with a 1.0, whip which is better than Georgia’s top reliever, Aaron Schunk.
“It looks like Justin has just finally gotten comfortable with his role on the team,” Wolfe said. “I’m excited about seeing him get opportunities and he’s really looked good this year. He could be a big key guy for them out of the bullpen if they need to get to Schunk.”
Mercer, however, could be the biggest X-factor in the Athens Regional. The Bears knocked off favorite Georgia Southern to win the Southern Conference title and feature yet another Buford hurler in Coulter.
The senior right-hander (5-3) is third on the team in wins and his 3.95 ERA is also is third-best and the lowest among those with nine or more starts. He also leads the team with 82 innings pitched allowing 103 hits, 19 walks, and fanned 65.
He could get the opening game call for the Bears in a head-to-head matchup with one of Georgia’s top pitchers, either Tony Locey or Emerson Hancock, who both have been mentioned for national year-ending pitching awards.
“Kevin was one of those kids because of his size in high school (6-foot-5) that had great upside potential,” Wolfe said. “He doesn’t throw as hard as some of the other guys but he never gets rattled and knows how to compete. That could be an interesting matchup if he gets the first-game start.”
We’ll have to wait until the smoke clears at both Foley Field and Russ Chandler Stadium to see which local players have the biggest impact to help propel their team into the Super Regionals.
But Lawler said he’s not surprised that the fates of two major regionals could be decided by northeast Georgia products.
“Not at all,” he said. “Like I said, I’ve always felt the talent has been here. The major colleges and pros are now seeing that. It’s nice to see this many kids on the D-I teams in the regionals. I definitely think someone from this area could decide who makes it. That’s what will be fun to watch.”
