Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson wins Golden Spikes Award

This honor is the cherry on top of multiple postseason awards Jackson has already secured, such as the Dick Howser Trophy, D1 Baseball Player of the Year, Perfect Game Player of the Year, Buster Posey Catcher of the Year Award, the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award, the 2026 Division I National Position Player of the Year by the ABCA/Rawlings, SEC Player of the Year and named a First Team All-American.

This season, the Sandy Springs native slashed .379/.473/.803 with 100 hits, 32 home runs, 87 RBIs, 26 stolen bases and led the NCAA with 212 total bases and 88 runs scored. Jackson became the first catcher in NCAA history to hit at least 30 home runs and steal 25 bases in a single season.

These potent offensive numbers earned him the SEC Triple Crown, the first in UGA history. UGA now joins Mississippi as the only schools to have a player win the SEC Triple Crown.

Jackson was just as good defensively, too, posting a .997 fielding percentage in 593 total chances and setting a school record for a catcher with 549 putouts. He also threw out 34 percent of base stealers (15-for-44).

The former Wofford transfer’s defining moment with Georgia came in the 10th inning of Game 2 of the Athens Super Regional against Mississippi State. With a runner on, Jackson hit a towering go-ahead two-run homer that gave UGA an 11-9 lead.

In the bottom half of the inning, Jackson was on the receiving end of a strike three pitch from Justin Byrd that punched Georgia’s ticket back to the College World Series for the first time since 2008.

After the game, UGA coach Wes Johnson raved about his star catcher.

​“I just told Daniel, I mean, he’s the best player in the country,” Johnson said on June 7. “He’ll be one of the best I’ve ever coached.”

Georgia’s season came up short in Omaha, losing to eventual champion Oklahoma in the semifinals. Jackson’s bat stayed relatively room temperature throughout the CWS, finishing 3-for-19 with a double, home run, and seven strikeouts. But that does not take anything away from how good a year he had.

“You know, if you think about it, it will go down as one of the best single-season performances in the history of our game, a guy ends up with — he’s 25-25 over that, 26-26. He’s the catcher, ends up with 31, 32 homers, whatever it is, hits .379," Johnson said on June 18. “That will go down as one of the best single-season performances in the history of our game.”

Jackson is currently the 39th-ranked MLB prospect and is projected to be taken sometime in the first round, according to MLB.com’s latest mock draft.