With the top seed in the College World Series out of the way, No. 6 Georgia can advance to the national championship series with a victory over No. 7 Stanford Saturday at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium. (The game, originally set for Friday, was moved to Saturday at 2 p.m. due to rain.)

And even though the showdown with the Cardinal is not a must-win game for the Bulldogs — a loss would pair the teams again in the rubber game of their CWS series — David Perno wants to close the deal today.

So after pondering how to handle his pitching staff heading into the contest, he opted to send ace Trevor Holder to the hill for today’s 2 p.m. start.

“It’s an interesting situation,” Perno said. “It was new and different to have three days off so it’s interesting from the standpoint of who you throw. You can go out there with No. 3 but if you lose you pitch Trevor Saturday and then he can’t come back if we’re fortunate enough to make the national championship series Monday.

“So what we hope to do is seal it up (today) and if that happens, Trevor can get the call again Monday.”

Today will be Holder’s team-leading 17th start this season, and he brings an 8-4 record and 4.45 earned run average to the fray. Holder started the CWS opener against the Miami Hurricanes last Saturday but didn’t figure into the decision. He pitched four innings and allowed three runs on four hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

In the postseason this year, Holder is 1-0 with a 4.32 ERA in three starts over a span of 16.2 innings.

Georgia’s bullpen in the CWS has allowed just one run in 11 innings. Georgia’s victory over Miami, coupled with Stanford’s conquest of the ’Canes Wednesday, knocked the nation’s No. 1 team out of the tourney. Georgia (43-23-1) defeated Stanford 4-3 Monday and will try to send the Cardinal (41-23-2) packing with a sweep of the Pac-10 power this afternoon.

The Bulldogs are 2-0 in the 2008 CWS, and the last time they started the tourney off in the same fashion they went on to claim the national crown.

“We’re excited to be 2-0, and so we’ll see how we play (today),” said Perno. “Our team is relaxed, and I know they will be fresh and ready to go, but (Stanford) will have had a day off, too. Our team has been locked in, they’ve been through a lot together the last few years so I’m not worried about them coming back and being ready.

“They’ll pull from their experiences and will be looking to accomplish their goal.”

This season Perno guided Georgia to its second SEC title since 2004, and became battle-tested for Omaha thanks to a difficult non-conference slate to go along with their league schedule. The Bulldogs opened up with a three-game set against No.1 Arizona and then faced two-time defending national champion No.12 Oregon State in Portland.

Including tournament play Georgia is an SEC-best 22-11 against Top 25 teams. The Bulldogs won eight of its 10 SEC series — including four on the road — and a 20-9-1 SEC mark is the best in school history.

With the 2008 league title UGA now has won six SEC titles in school history and is the only SEC team to win three this decade.

But, those accomplishments are already in the books. Now the task at hand is bringing the first baseball title in 18 seasons back to Athens.

“We’re rested and recuperated and ready to go,” said National Player of the Year finalist Gordon Beckham. “If I get the opportunity, I’ve got to go out and help the team as much as I can. We’ve beaten two great teams already in Miami and Stanford, and I give them all the credit in the world. But now we have to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

Stanford coach Mark Marquess concedes an edge for UGA, but shrugs it off.

“It’s a huge advantage to win the winner’s game because you get to sit for three days,” he said. “But you just have to take it game by game. If you look at it like how difficult it is to come back, it becomes impossible. But especially after the season we’ve had, coming back from a number of games, we’re not going to let it bother us.”

Today’s matchup will be televised live on ESPN 2. If Georgia wins, the Bulldogs start the national championship series Monday at 6 p.m. on ESPN.

Should the Cardinal win and force an elimination game Saturday, it will be played at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.