For Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin, Christmas came a bit early with the recent additions of outfielder Will Campbell and outfielder/pitcher Tucker Bradley, two players – who from all indications – should make huge contributions to the Bulldogs next spring.
“We were very fortunate to get these two guys in as late as it was. With the pro draft and the way things work in college baseball, there’s always one or two players that are kind of floating around right there at the end,” Stricklin told UGASports.com. “You can’t bet on it, you can’t bank on it but we were very fortunate to get these two kids before our deadline for admissions which was June 30. This all happened June 27, June 28 right before it was time to get them in for the deadline.”
Their numbers were certainly impressive.
A two-year standout at Chattahoochee Valley Community College, Campbell won the Alabama Community College Conference Triple Crown last spring after batting .425 with 19 home runs and 83 RBI.
Campbell was set to attend Vanderbilt before an issue over classes still needed to transfer caused him to change his mind and pick the Bulldogs, while Bradley was headed to Auburn before last year's coaching change, which ultimately led to new coach Butch Thompson (former Georgia pitching coach) agreeing to release the former Walker County standout to attend UGA.
Last year, Bradley (6-foot, 180 pounds) batted .552 with nine home runs, 36 RBI with 23 stolen bases while going 7-0 on the mound with 86 strikeouts in just 50 innings. Opponents batted just .149 against the lefty.
Although both players will have to earn their playing time like anyone else, getting the two only serves as icing to a 2017 signing class that was already ranked fourth in the country by PerfectGame.org (second in the SEC behind Ole Miss).
“We feel very confident he’s going to be in that lineup. He’s still got to come in and earn it, but I have every indication that he’s going to come in here and play right away,” Stricklin said. “In the original recruiting class, we had Tucker Maxwell coming in as an outfielder, but that was the one place where we didn’t have a lot of depth. On the infield we had a lot of depth.
“But with our outfield, we didn’t have a lot of depth. We’ve got Keegan McGovern coming back, Tucker Maxwell coming in and we felt like with these infielders – they’re all very good athletes – that one of them could go to the outfield. With Campbell and Bradley, getting those guys late, that just kind of put some depth into the outfield where it needs to be.”
Stricklin sees Bradley as a legit two-way player for the Bulldogs.
“He’s up to 92 mph the other day and threw a perfect game in his last outing of the summer. It was a game shortened game due to the run rule but he struck out 12 out of 15, is left-handed and he’s funky, he’ll drop down from the side,” Stricklin said. “We recruited him as an outfielder. We think he’ll be able to come in and play as an outfielder but I don’t see any reason he’s not going to be able to play seven or eight innings in the outfield and trot in and pitch.
“He's very indicative of Mark Kotsay (former Cal-State Fullerton standout and major league player), he used to come in from center fielder, come in on the mound and be the closer. He’s got that kind of mentality.”
NOTE: Stricklin said all but two of Georgia’s 14 signees are currently in school and finishing up final exams. The two – Bradley, signed too late to start classes while Maxwell’s Summer League team, the East Cobb Yankees, is currently playing in the Connie Mack World Series in New Mexico.
