ATHENS — Georgia baseball fans are among the first in the nation to experience the “new” normal with Covid-19 seating restrictions lifted at Foley Field.

A season-high 2,221 fans watched Georgia battle Ole Miss into extra innings on Friday night.

“It’s back to normal,” UGA student Julie Mooney said of the near-capacity crowd.

Mooney was one of the many students who filled Section 201 at the end of the first base side grandstand seating.

The crowd, garbed chiefly in red and black with the occasional Ole Miss powder blue, grew especially raucous in two-strike counts and when a Bulldog drew a walk.

The Rebels have taken the first two games of the series in nail-biting fashion, 2-0 on Thursday and 8-5 in 11 innings on Friday.

But coach Scott Stricklin’s young Bulldogs have appreciated the atmosphere and fed off the crowd to give the 11th-ranked Rebels all they have wanted.

“It was great to have the crowd there,” Stricklin said. “I thought our players fed off of it. It was great to see fans in there.”

Former UGA baseball letterman Ted Dieter (’76) agrees with Stricklin.

“Absolutely, no doubt about it,” Dieter said on fans’ effects on players. “The louder the better.”

Dieter has caught a lot of Georgia baseball games since moving from Albany to Athens a decade ago, including 12 this season. While he puts the fan experience at a 5 out of 10 in the capacity-restricted games of earlier this season, Dieter dubbed this weekend’s crowd “very exciting”.

“I feel a buzz out here tonight that we haven’t felt all year basically,” Dieter said.

UGA student Britton Waters is encouraged by trends in increasing fan engagement as coronavirus restrictions have eased.

“The last series I was at, Foley was at [limited] capacity but that was definitely better than the first series when nobody was here and it was depressing,” Waters said.

Waters said he was among many who missed out on attending a Georgia football game in the fall after Vanderbilt backed out of playing Georgia as schedule, and then again on the arranged postponement date.

The Bulldogs played just three home games in 2020 but are expected to play their full slate of home games this season in front of capacity crowds.

Gregg Jones provided testimony the football games will carry the sort of energy that has made Sanford Stadium one of the best game-day environments.

Jones, who has not missed a home baseball game this season, says the crowd is “back like it used to be and like it needs to be.”

“A lot better,” Jones said. “More excitement, more energy.”

“I’m a huge baseball fan, so whether there’s 500 here or 3,500 here, it’s going to be exciting for me. I think the players feed off excitement, so I’d rather have it this way.”