The 2026 NCAA Tournament begins on Friday, May 29. Here is World Baseball Network’s preview of the Athens regional.
Athens Regional – Foley Field, Athens, Ga.
No. 1 – Georgia Bulldogs (46-12, 23-7 SEC) – N0. 3 National Seed
The Bulldogs enter the tournament with 13 wins in their last 14 games, including a dominant but rain-soaked 11-1 seven-inning win over Arkansas in the SEC Tournament championship game to earn fourth NCAA bid in five years, but they haven’t made it to Omaha in 18 years.
With an NCAA-leading 148 homers this season and a total of 541 runs scored against just 291 by their opponents, the Bulldogs have possibly the highest-power offense in the nation. Daniel Jackson is third in the nation in homers with 27 and tied for fifth in the country with 78 RBIs. Behind Jackson, Tre Phelps has 19 homers, Kolby Branch, Michael O’Shaughnessy, and Brennan Hudson have 17 homers each, and Allen Henry has 13. With a team on-base percentage of .439 and 309 walks this season, the Bulldogs get on base and then beat you with the long ball.
Of their seven pitchers with more than 30 innings pitched this season, all have an ERA below 5.00 and six of the seven have a WHIP under 1.500. The whole staff has 594 strikeouts against just 250 walks and opponents are batting .244 against the Bulldogs.
No. 2 – Boston College Eagles (36-21, 17-13 ACC)
The Eagles enter the tournament on a four-game losing skid, but three of those games were against Georgia Tech, a top-four national seed, and the other against fellow at-large bid recipient Miami (Fla.), and they’ve won just once in their last eight games, which includes a split on the road with NJIT, the 290th-ranked team in the RPI.
Nick Wang drives the Eagles at the plate, having hit 16 homers and driven in 61 runs, but B.C. isn’t a team that wins with the long ball, having hit just 40 of them this year. They score moving runners station-to-station with base hits, of which they have 498 this year, and have drawn 271 walks over the course of the season.
The pitching staff is led by AJ Colarusso, who’s thrown 76 innings in 15 starts this season with a 4.62 ERA, 71 strikeouts and 22 walks. They’ve got a shot at beating Georgia, but it’s a very long shot.
No. 3 – Liberty (41-19, 21-9 C-USA)
The Liberty Flames might be better than their No. 32 RIP ranking indicates, having posted an even 10-10 record against the top quadrant of college baseball and winning records against the other three quadrants. Their best regional results came in 2013 and 2022, when they went 2-2 at Columbia, S.C., and Knoxville, Tenn., respectively, finishing one win short of advancing.
Nick Barone (12 HR, 55 RBIs) and Josh Campos (11 HR, 50 RBIs) lead the Flames at bat, though they’re the only real power threats in the lineup.
Ben Blair (3.61 ERA, 87 1/3 IP, 106K, 17BB) and Bradley Zayac (3.36 ERA, 80 1/3 IP, 68K, 17BB) anchor the pitching staff and give Liberty a chance to win every time they’re on the mound, but good pitching may not be enough to get past the battle-tested Georgia offense.
No. 4 – Long Island Sharks (30-20, 26-7 NEC)
The Sharks are going to need a bigger boat to make it out of the Athens Regional. Playing in the Northeast Conference, Long Island ranked 297th in strength of schedule and didn’t play a single game against the top quadrant of college baseball this season, while going 0-3 against quadrant two and 2-6 against quadrant three. This year marks the third NCAA bid for LIU since the two campuses unified in 2019, though the team’s 2022 and 2024 tournament appearances were vacated following an investigation into violations of the school’s process for determining academic and amateurism for eligibility purposes.
2026 Athens Regional Schedule
Fri., May 29 – No. 2 Boston College (36-21) vs. No. 3 Liberty (41-19), 2 p.m., ESPN+
Fri., May 29 – No. 1 Georgia (46-12) vs. No. 4 LIU (30-20), 7 p.m. SECN
WBN NCAA: https://worldbaseball.com/league/ncaa/
PHOTO: Georgia’s Daniel Jackson (3) hits a solo home run during an NCAA baseball game against Wright State on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026 in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)
