Sizing Up The Athens Regional

Athens, Georgia is a decidedly different area from Atlanta's metropolitan centerpiece. The home of the University of Georgia's flagship campus, an alt-rock scene known for its place throughout the 1980s and 1990s stands in contrast to the hip hop culture and more robust rap artistry associated with the more-southern ATL, while its downtown is more driven by the tourist sectors affiliated with visitors to the Bulldogs' campus. The population is roughly a quarter of the ample density within Atlanta's metropolitan area, and like most states, an invisible dividing line curtails the similarities between cities located closer to South Carolina and Florida.

Atlanta is a professional city with a professional culture, and college sports blend seamlessly into its athletic fabric where Athens stands out solely for its association with one of the most powerful brands in the NCAA. Home to the so-called "mean machine in the red and black," the Georgia Bulldogs are an elite SEC department that's bitten and mauled college sports across every possible discipline. Nearly 200 conference championships line its coffers, and its most recent success under Kirby Smart's football program claimed consecutive College Football Playoff national championships in 2021 and 2022.

Georgia baseball predominantly lived in the shadows of those traditions. The one-time national champions in 1990 haven't appeared in a College World Series since the late-2000s and failed to advance to the NCAA Tournament across a seven-year gap during the 2010s. A "resurgence" only narrowly included three different trips under head coach Scott Stricklin, and few of those seasons ended with a winning record in conference play.

Hiring Wes Johnson in 2024 forever changed that perception. Building on Stricklin's success, he led the Bulldogs to their first Super Regional in 16 years in his first season while claiming a postseason top-8 seed for the first time in the post-pandemic era, and this year's team won both the SEC's regular season and tournament crowd - a first in program history.

Now the No. 3 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, Georgia is arguably the hottest and best team in the nation and a host team with an intimate and hostile setting for the three teams visiting Athens for a double-elimination regional. That said, second-seeded Boston College joins third-seeded Liberty and fourth-seeded Long Island are part of a regional that's recognized as a potential "group of death" for any of its participants, a fact that's making the Eagles all the more excited to arrive in northern Georgia for a possible extended stay in the Deep South.

"We [started] in January in the bubble [surrounding Alumni Stadium] and felt like we really had a good team," said head coach Todd Interdonato after his team finished practicing at the Harrington Athletics Village on Tuesday. "We felt like we were headed in the right direction [with] momentum from the ACC Tournament [from] last year. Our guys were really focused and committed to basically making the next step and getting to the postseason, and our coaches laid out the plan, or the 'path,' as we called it, and our guys were able to execute it throughout the season. Now, we're here, and we're reaping the rewards."

Arriving in Georgia alongside three teams that likewise won their way into the NCAA Tournament provides BC with much-needed context beyond the third-ranked Bulldogs. The Liberty team opposing the Eagles in the first round, for example, is in its first national tournament in four years but previously went to three consecutive tournaments in 2019, 2021 and 2022. The former members of the Big South have grown since realigning twice and twice notched 40-win seasons with three trips to the NCAA Tournament after moving to the ASUN, and this current season - their third since joining Conference USA - posted a high water mark with 41 wins and a second place finish in one of baseball's better overall conferences.

"Bradley [LeCroy] coached in South Carolina for a good number of years when I was down there," explained Interdonato, "so I'm pretty familiar with him and his style. He has some assistant coaches that I know as well, and they look like a very good team. You don't win 41 games by accident, and their pitching looks really strong, their defense looks really good. They have some good players, and like anybody else in this tournament, they're going to be really good."

Conference USA sent three teams to the national tournament and bordered on hosting a regional when Jacksonville State finished the season with the No. 21 national ranking. Its composition included Dallas Baptist, a near-annual addition to the tournament since 2013, and Louisiana Tech, which is leaving for the Sun Belt Conference, alongside Western Kentucky and Kennesaw State. The large bulk of the league formerly played in the Atlantic Sun and the Western Athletic Conference before mergers and realignment cannibalized those two conferences, but its place outside of the power conferences was never truly challenged by the drop to the WAC, the Big West or the Southland.

The NEC, on the other hand, dealt with an unfortunate statistic after finishing last in the nation's conference ELO rankings. A team built from the merger of LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post's respective Division I and Division II programs, LIU infamously hung with North Carolina during the 2024 Chapel Hill Regional before losing to Wofford, 5-2, in the Terriers' first year after Interdonato left for Chapel Hill. Once a 2018 conference champion as LIU Brooklyn, the 2022 NEC champs won the four-team NEC conference tournament in 2026 by beating Le Moyne and twice dominating Farleigh Dickinson - the latter of which ended with a 22-8 win in the conference title game.

"Both us and Liberty know that we have a really tough opponent in front of us with each other," said Interdonato. "We'll see what happens with [Georgia] and Long Island. You play it one game at a time, but this is going to be a great environment. I've coached a ton of games in Athens [and] played against Georgia, starting all the way back during my playing career. I'm very familiar with the venue, very familiar with the school, and it's going to be a great environment. I'm really excited for our guys to get this experience."

Second-seeded Boston College plays No. 3 Liberty in the first game of the Athens Regional of the 2026 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. First pitch is scheduled for Friday, May 29, at 2 p.m., from Foley Field in Athens, Georgia, with television coverage slotted for the ESPN+ subscription streaming service.

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