He may not be the next Nostradamus, but Georgia head baseball coach David Perno hit one preseason prediction spot on.

Before the season he told his team, the national runners-up, that if they played well through the first half of the season, they could be the No. 1 team in the country heading into this weekend’s series against LSU.

And that is just the scenario, as Perno’s top-ranked Bulldogs (24-3, 7-2 SEC) welcome the No. 5 Bayou Bengals (21-7, 6-3 SEC) for a three-game series at Foley Field. Just don’t expect him to make too much fuss out of this high profile matchup.

“It’s just a tough SEC series, like they all are,” he said. “It’s no tougher than the previous and its not going to be any bigger than the next one. As you play, everyone is the biggest at the time. [Tonight's] game will be the biggest we played all year, and Saturday regardless what happens will be the biggest game all year. We just need to approach it like we do every other game.”

Coming of a two game sweep of Clemson and two straight SEC sweeps, the players are amped for this weekend, but like their coach, keep it in perspective.

“We’re excited we really are,” said senior pitcher Trevor Holder. “It’s gonna be a great weekend and LSU is a great team and this is what its all about, this is what the SEC is all about. You have two good teams playing against each other and its gonna be a lot of fun.

“But you can’t get too hyped up about one weekend,” he added. “They’re a great team and we have a lot of respect for them, but it’s the SEC and any team can beat you any weekend and as the weeks go on [SEC series] get bigger and bigger .but the main thing is we just have to be focused and take it like every other SEC weekend.”

One of the reasons for the team’s tremendous start (the best in school history) is because of the way it is built. It relies on the entire roster, a heavy mix of freshmen, juniors and seniors, to perform and pick each other up. And it doesn’t hurt that all the players get along.

“Every person on this team has such great character and we all feed off each other,” freshman right fielder Chase Davidson said. “And its great to have a mix of freshman and juniors and seniors because the older helps the younger and the younger helps the older and we have no problems with anyone.”

Another reason has been the team’s play within the friendly confines of Foley Field. The Diamond Dogs are off to a 15-1 start at home and with more-than-capacity crowds expected for this weekend, the team is eager to build off the energy from the fans.

“Its pretty exciting the three games are sold out and they’ve supposedly been sold out for a while now and its just incredible coming into an environment like this when the fans have been nuts,” Davidson said.

Added freshman third baseman Colby May: “I can’t wait, its gonna be a lot of fun. [The fans] gives us a lot of push and it helps us out and get us through the day and weekend like it did with Mississippi State when we set those attendance records.”

Holder (5-1, 3.06 ERA), will start tonight at 7, junior Alex McRee (2-0, 1.80 ERA) will start Saturday and sophomore Justin Grimm (2-1, 4.11 ERA) will start Sunday.