Glancing at Georgia

        G     RS    RA   Diff   ExpW-L   ActW-L  1RunGms    AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS   SOS  ISR
UGA    62    439   338   101    39-23    39-22-1   9-5     .306  .388  .479  .867    40   31
NCSU   60*   416   244   172    45-15    41-20     9-8     .302  .392  .461  .853    68   34

[* -- GoPack hasn't updated the stats to include Sunday's game.]

According to Boyd Nation's park factors, Georgia's Foley Field is a significant pitcher's park; the park's 79 factor means that 21% fewer runs are scored at Foley vs. a neutral, average scoring environment. Considering that, and the fact that most SEC venues are favorable to pitchers, it's fair to say UGa's offense is a good bit better than it looks on paper.

The big bats:

                          AVG     OBP     SLG    HR    XBH
Gordon Beckham           .397    .505    .781    24    44
Rich Poythress           .364    .455    .641    15    34
Bryce Massanari          .346    .429    .548    10    23

Beckham was just selected at 1.8 in today's MLB draft; welcome to the White Sox, Gordon! (Please hurry to the majors. Thanks.)

The pitching...

       HR/9IP   K/9   BB/9   K/BB   dERA   AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS   ISO
UGA     1.1     7.6    3.3    2.3   5.07  .267  .344  .412  .756  .145
NCSU    0.64    8.3    3.5    2.4   4.23  .237  .320  .351  .671  .114

Adjust those defense-independent ERAs for park--NC State's drops to 4.02, while UGA's jumps to 5.96--and the Pack's advantage here becomes that much more evident.

Georgia's weekend starters...

                            IP   HR/9   K/9   BB/9   K/BB    ERA   dERA
Trevor Holder   (Gm 1)     78.3  1.15   6.2    2.4    2.6   4.60   5.17
Nathan Moreau   (Gm 2)     65.7  1.51   7.0    4.1    1.7   4.93   6.32
Nick Montgomery (Gm 3)     51.7  1.04   9.2    2.4    3.8   4.01   4.16

There's no real ace going for the Bulldogs, and that's always encouraging; of course, I thought we'd hit USC's similarly vulnerable-looking staff around, and that didn't exactly happen. Georgia, like South Carolina, has a bit of a HR problem; Holder and Moreau have allowed 10 and 11 HRs, respectively, while the other usual weekend starter (Stephen Dodson) has allowed 15.

If Georgia takes a lead into the 8th/9th inning, we'll definitely be seeing this man:

                            IP   HR/9   K/9   BB/9   K/BB    ERA   dERA
Joshua Fields              31.7  0.57   15.9   5.1    3.1   2.27   2.72

And at that point, we'll be pretty much toast. Good heavens, look at that strikeout rate.