HOOVER, Ala. — The 2026 SEC Baseball Tournament is down to two teams. The first-ever SEC Tournament championship game appearance in Georgia Bulldogs program history, against a Cinderella No. 7-seed Arkansas Razorbacks team that has now won three straight elimination games. First pitch is Sunday at 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m. CT) on ABC, with the trophy on the line for the first time at the Hoover Met since 2025.
Memorial Day weekend. Four straight rain-affected days in Hoover. One trophy.
Sunday’s championship game at a glance
Game 15: No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs vs. No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks
Time: 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m. CT)
TV: ABC (over-the-air via local ABC affiliates)
Streaming: ABC.com / ESPN+ (subscription or cable login)
Records: Georgia 45-12 (24-7 SEC); Arkansas 39-19 (18-13 SEC)
D1Baseball rankings (May 18): Georgia No. 4, Arkansas No. 12
Series context: Georgia took 2-of-3 in Fayetteville in April. Arkansas won Game 1; Georgia outscored Arkansas 31-17 in the final two games of the series.
Georgia: the first-ever final
The No. 1 seed Georgia Bulldogs (45-12, 24-7 SEC) reached Sunday’s championship game with a stunning 8-7 comeback win over No. 5 seed Florida on Saturday — erasing a 6-0 deficit, never hitting a home run, and walking off the field with the first SEC Tournament championship game berth in program history.
It is not an exaggeration to call this the most consequential weekend in Georgia baseball’s modern history. The Bulldogs are 31-52 all-time in SEC Tournament play, with three previous finals appearances (the last in 1989) and zero titles. Wes Johnson — the 2026 SEC Coach of the Year, in his third year leading the program — is one win away from delivering the conference tournament trophy that has eluded the Bulldogs for the entirety of their program history.
“It’s still baseball,” Johnson said in Saturday’s postgame. “What’s different in our sport than any other sport — we’ve gotta show up tomorrow. The score doesn’t roll over. Emotions don’t roll over. It’s a really long game. You can’t panic, you can’t get too emotional at times — it’ll take you out of your approach.”
Georgia’s offensive identity has been home runs all year. The Bulldogs lead the country with 148 home runs this season. The Saturday comeback over Florida was the first time all year they won a game without going deep — and Florida is the only team Georgia has not homered against across four matchups (regular season + tournament) in 2026.
Daniel Jackson — the 2026 SEC Player of the Year and the first catcher in Division I history with a 25-25 season (.394, 27 HR, 25 SB) — is the anchor. Brennan Hudson (17 HRs) and Kolby Branch (17 HRs) flank him. The bottom of the order, led by Kenny Ishikawa, Ryan Black, and Tre Phelps, drove the Saturday comeback with two-out singles and sacrifice flies.
Pitching: Joey Volchko (Game 9 starter), Dylan Vigue (Game 13 starter), Zach Brown, Caden Aoki, Justin Byrd, and Tyler Pitzer. Byrd was the postgame revelation Saturday — Johnson called his fastball “electric” with the ride and carry to attack the top of the zone. Aoki threw 3 innings of long relief Saturday at his planned 50-65 pitch count, which Johnson confirmed would make him unavailable for Sunday.
Georgia’s starting rotation for Sunday is undeclared. Johnson, asked in the postgame, said the bullpen is rested and the call will likely depend on game flow.
Arkansas: the Cinderella run
The No. 7 seed Arkansas Razorbacks (39-19, 18-13 SEC) are now three elimination wins deep at the Hoover Met. The bracket math: Tennessee 8-4 on Wednesday. Texas 8-1 on Friday. Auburn 2-1 on Saturday night.
The Saturday win over Auburn was the kind that defines a tournament run. Cam Kozeal — the second baseman who’s been the offensive star of the week — singled in the tying run in the fifth inning. Then catcher Ryder Helfrick, who’d been struggling at the plate per head coach Dave Van Horn’s earlier admission, launched a solo home run to left field in the top of the eighth that proved to be the game-winner. Closer Ethan McElvain shut the door across the final 3.1 innings of one-run baseball.
Through three SEC Tournament games, Arkansas has now scored 18 runs, allowed 6, and used its bullpen to throw 21.1 scoreless innings combined across the Tennessee, Texas, and Auburn wins.
“We can piece it together,” Van Horn said after Friday’s win over Texas, asked about his Saturday plans. “Whoever we start probably won’t plan on pitching it very long.”
The Razorbacks delivered exactly that on Saturday. Cooper Dossett started, gave up the lone Auburn run on a Bub Terrell HR in the second, and exited after 2.1 innings. Petrovic, DeCremer, Fisher, and McElvain combined for the rest. Auburn’s offense was held to 7 hits — none for extra bases beyond a McCraine double in the 4th — across the rest of the game.
Hunter Dietz, the All-SEC ace and MLB Pipeline’s No. 18 overall draft prospect who took a line drive off his shin in the first inning of Friday’s win, remains a question for Sunday. Gabe Gaeckle, who threw 6 scoreless innings of relief Friday, is presumably unavailable. The Arkansas pitching depth has been the story of the tournament; the Sunday starter remains uncalled.
The Hawaiian baseball pipeline that anchors the WBN angle on this team has been front-and-center all weekend. Kuhio Aloy, Nolan Souza, and Maika Niu — three native-born Hawaiian student-athletes on the Arkansas roster, the most in program history — have been part of the lineup throughout the run. Aloy’s brother Wehiwa won the 2025 Golden Spikes Award. Souza is a Punahou School graduate. Even Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle, in his Friday postgame, name-checked Kuhio Aloy unprompted: “I don’t know if they’re getting their Aloy back or not, but just the physical team that knows how to win.” (See our Saturday semifinals “Who to Cheer For” guide for the full Hawaiian baseball at Arkansas breakdown.)
The April matchup: a 31-17 Georgia statement
The two programs met in Fayetteville in April. Georgia won the series 2-1, and the way the Bulldogs won it has bearing on Sunday’s pitching matchup. Arkansas took the opener. Then Georgia outscored the Razorbacks 31-17 in the final two games — including a 26-run outburst that ranks as Arkansas’s worst home defeat of the season.
Dylan Vigue, Georgia’s likely Sunday starter (or whoever replaces him after his Saturday outing), had a 2.51 ERA through the early portion of the conference schedule including that Arkansas series. He has surrendered 15 earned runs across his last 12⅔ innings since returning from a forearm cramp on May 2 — a 10.66 ERA across his last four starts against Missouri, LSU, Auburn, and Florida.
Hunter Dietz, who started one of those April games for Arkansas, is now the wild-card health question for Sunday after taking a comebacker off his shin in Friday’s first inning. Whether the Razorback ace can go remains the most consequential pitching question on either side of the matchup.