If D1Baseball suggests your nickname could be “Portal King,” you know you’re utilizing that avenue to the fullest.
And heading into his third season at Georgia, coach Wes Johnson has established a pattern: utilize the transfer portal to reload and fill in any gaps on the roster.
The Bulldogs have earned a national seed and hosted an NCAA regional in back-to-back seasons, so the strategy has helped give them a boost so far. They enter this season ranked No. 6 by Baseball America, with their portal class ranked No. 1 by 64Analytics, hoping to reach the College World Series for the first time since 2008.
Georgia pitcher Joey Volchko (3-4, 6.01 ERA at Stanford) was ranked the No. 2 transfer in the portal by 64Analytics and will get the start when the Bulldogs open the season Friday, in the first game of a three-game series hosting Wright State.
“Oh, it’s massive,” Johnson said Thursday of how important the portal has been since he’s been at Georgia. “I mean, especially when you come into a situation like I did, where this league’s a ‘now’ league. … It’s not like minor league baseball, where I can just roll a pitcher out there for five innings and whatever happens, happens. You need ‘now’ players. And that’s what the portal has been able to do for, you know, somebody who needed to get more now players into a system. The challenge with it is, once you dive into that pool, you’re gonna be in there for a little bit. You’re gonna swim in it, so to speak. And that’s kind of where we’re at.”
This year, Georgia’s roster features 20 players from the portal, one from junior college, 15 returnees and five freshmen (Georgia had 18 returnees, 10 freshmen and 17 portal additions in Johnson’s first season and 14 returnees, six freshmen and 21 portal additions in his second).
The Bulldogs acquired six players in Baseball America’s top 100 players from the portal: Volchko (listed at No. 5), pitcher Matt Scott (also from Stanford, listed at No. 19), catcher/outfielder Jack Arcamone (Richmond) at No. 20, first baseman/pitcher Bryce Calloway (New Orleans) at No. 41, pitcher Dylan Vigue (Michigan) at No. 55 and pitcher Caden Aoki (USC) at No. 80.
A transfer from Seattle, left-hander and outfielder Kenny Ishikawa (5-7, 4.35 ERA, led team in batting average with .318), will start the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader vs. Wright State (the game was moved from Sunday in anticipation of inclement weather), with Vigue (1-4, 4.25 ERA at Michigan) slated for the second.
Building chemistry with so many new faces around hasn’t been tough for the Bulldogs, according to Kolby Branch, Georgia’s mainstay at shortstop who batted .303 and had a .981 fielding percentage last season.
“Luckily, you know, the common thing between us is that we’re all pretty old and we’re all experienced,” Branch said. “We’ve all played, we’ve all succeeded, you know, at their respective schools. And so when you come together, you kind of have that in common. So you start to build the relationship off that, and then it just blossoms into whatever it is.”
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
