AJC- The Season Everything Went Wrong for Georgia Baseball

ATHENS -- The low point of this Georgia baseball season? "There are so many," shortstop Kyle Farmer said. So take your pick.

Maybe the afternoon the Bulldogs blew an eight-run, eighth-inning lead at Mississippi State. Maybe the night they lost 25-6 to Georgia Tech. Or maybe the evening a black cat ominously wandered into left field in the late innings of a loss to Furman.

Finally, mercifully, Georgia's longest and losingest baseball season ends Saturday afternoon.
Just two years removed from playing in the finals of the College World Series and just 14 months removed from being ranked No. 1 in the nation, the Bulldogs will wrap up an unimaginably bad season against Kentucky at Foley Field.
These Bulldogs (15-36, 4-22 SEC before Friday night) have lost more games than any other team in Georgia baseball history and won fewer than any team since 1974. The staff ERA of 8.57 is the worst in the SEC, among the worst in the nation and almost two runs per game higher than Georgia's previous worst. The team also is at the bottom of the SEC in most offensive categories and is 0-8 in league games decided by one run.
Around Athens, folks want to know: What the heck happened?
"We hear stuff like that," second baseman Levi Hyams said, "but a lot of times it ain't [phrased] that nice."
You name it, it has gone wrong. Injuries decimated the infield early. The pitching staff, expected to be the pillar of the team, buckled under pressure. And once things started going badly, they snowballed on the SEC's youngest team (all freshmen and sophomores in the starting lineup except for pitchers).
"Unfortunately, it was just a perfect storm," coach David Perno said. "I know obviously I made some bad calls and couldn't pull the right strings with this club. So it starts at the top. And unfortunately I've got a lot of time to figure it out, with us not going to the postseason."
This perhaps was destined to be a rebuilding season after Georgia had a nation-leading 11 players chosen in last year's Major League Baseball draft, only three of whom returned to school. But no one foresaw the magnitude of the decline.
"It's especially tough when you think that in my sophomore year we were playing in the national championship series, and last year we were No. 1 in the country for a good time," senior relief pitcher Justin Earls said.
Said starting pitcher Justin Grimm: "It's been really difficult. It's been tense here and there in the dugout and the locker room."
Hyams: "In the toughest times, you find out what kind of character you have. I feel like our team hasn't quit. We've played our butts off the whole season."
Far worse than on-field losses, the team faced off-field tragedy.
Last fall, freshman infielder Chance Veazey -- projected to be the Bulldogs' starting second baseman -- was paralyzed from the waist down in a traffic accident. The team approached the season with a heavy heart.
"I know it changed me, and I never really got a grip," Perno said.
The team witnessed more devastation in early May when it was in Nashville for a series against Vanderbilt during massive flooding there.
After Saturday's game, Perno plans to begin plotting next season. He acknowledges he has personnel decisions to make but does not elaborate. "That's what next week is for," he said.
He is pleased that his team has continued to play hard and gratified that fans have continued to show up. "I wouldn't come and watch us, I'm sorry," Perno said. "But I really appreciate the support."
Georgia reached five NCAA tournaments and three College World Series in Perno's previous eight years as coach -- more on both counts than under any other coach in school history. He vows to get the program back on track.
"We may look back on this season and say it was a learning process for us," Perno said. "We've got a great program. The symbols on the walls don't lie. We know what it takes. We know the personnel we need, and we know the character-type guys we need. And they're here. We just got to get everybody back on the same page and moving in the same direction."