Northern Kentucky at Georgia

WHERE: Foley Field

WHEN: Friday - 3:02 p.m., Saturday 2:02 p.m., Sunday 1:02 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia 4-0; Northern Kentucky 2-2

STARTING PITCHERS: Friday - Charlie Goldstein (1-0, 2.25) vs TBA; Saturday - Christian Mracna (1-0, 2.25) vs TBA); Sunday - Leighton Finley (1-0, 0.00). vs TBA

TV/RADIO: SEC Network+; Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler and David Johnson).

There’s been a recent trend in major league baseball in which leadoff hitters and tops of lineups no longer resemble what used to be the norm.

More and more, speedy contact hitters are no longer used as before. Power hitters, sluggers with the ability to put the ball out of the park, find themselves higher in the lineup instead of what used to be your customary three, four, and five spots.

The Atlanta Braves do it with Ronald Acuna Jr. as their leadoff hitter, and the Los Angeles Dodgers with Freddie Freeman, who is expected to hit second this year.

At Georgia, head coach Wes Johnson is following suit.

Mississippi State transfer Slate Alford is 6-foot-3, 236 pounds, and leading off. Hitting behind him, All-American Charlie Condon is up a spot to No. 2 from where he hit a season ago.

Although the pair may resemble a pair of Kirby Smart’s outside linebackers on the football team, it’s hard to argue with the results.

Alford earned Co-SEC Player of the Week honors and is batting .400 with three homers and 10 RBI, while Condon is batting a cool .714 with an on-base percentage of .800 heading into this weekend’s series against Northern Kentucky.

“An interesting stat in the big leagues: a leadoff walk scores a lot more times than a leadoff double does. So, with all that being said, the power pitching forced hitting into a power game,” head coach Wes Johnson said. “You had to go in and get your runs when you could, so you looked and everybody said, I’ve got to get my boppers up as many times as I can, to get much as I can, to have as many chances as I can to hit homers.”

Although Johnson cannot say if this is the route he’ll go all year, it certainly makes sense for now.

“We do so much in the fall. I’m playing guys all over the place. Slate’s hit leadoff, he’s hit third, he’s hit second. We break him and Charlie up on different teams as we do in the fall, so he’s fine with it,” Johnson said. “(Alford) did it in the fall some. He hit three, he hit four in the fall. We led Charlie off in the fall a couple of times.”

Hitting in front of Condon has other advantages, too.

In Georgia’s first four games, Alford has yet to see an off-speed offering on the first pitch. With his power, Johnson hopes there are more home runs to come.

“It's a different mindset, but it’s like I tell him, I don’t want you changing your approach. The number beside your name in the batting order is just a number. You’re still going up there with your approach, and you’re still trying to do damage,” Johnson said. “You’re not a singles hitter trying to steal bases. You’re trying to hit the ball hard in the gap, you’re trying to hit a double or a homer.

Fifteen games in 20 days.

That’s what is facing Georgia over the next three weeks, starting with the first of three Friday (3 p.m.) against Northern Kentucky.

“We’ve got 15 games in the next 20 days starting tomorrow, and with that being said, I think guys are staying engaged because we are,” Johnson said. “I think that’s working in our favor, we’re not giving at-bats away, and we’re staying locked in.”

Having an older team thanks to 17 transfers certainly helps.

“The older guys want to win. They want to play and they want to win,” Johnson said. “But also, they’ve done this long enough that as long as their role is presented to them, and they understand what it is that we try to convey to them on a daily basis, then they’re fine, they keep going.”

Although roles are still being defined, Johnson said he likes what he sees from the standpoint of players moving from one game to the next.

“One of the things I’ll talk about with them today, you can’t let your tomorrow take up too much of your today,” he said. “So, whether you had success or you didn’t yesterday, you’ve got to let it go, because I’m going to put you back in there.”

Sophomore Jarvis Evans started Tuesday’s game at Georgia State, and although he walked four batters in three innings, Johnson felt it was a good start.

“Overall, he was good. He was able to wiggle out of some jams. I told him, what happened when you were in the strike zone, nothing, right?” Johnson said of the left-hander, who otherwise allowed just one hit to the Panthers.

“Things that hurt you are walks. There’s so much power in college baseball now where guys can hit homers, so the way you let a team back in the game is to put them on base free,” Johnson said. “I want them to earn it. If we get beat, we look up and we’ve given up 15 hits and didn’t walk anybody, I’ll sleep at night. We’ve just got to get better. But when you’re walking guys, putting them on, walking somebody, then a homer, that’s the nights you don’t sleep.

All in all, though, Jarvis was good enough. He’s obviously going to continue to get opportunities until he tells us he doesn’t need them anymore.”

…Georgia’s weekend rotation will remain the same, with Charlie Goldstein (1-0, 2.25) starting Friday, Christian Mracna (1-0, 2.25) on Saturday, and Leighton Finley (1-0, 0.00) on Sunday. After being limited to 65 pitches in the opener, Johnson said all three will be bumped up to approximately 80, assuming they are pitching well.

…Johnson said reliever Collin Caldwell (elbow) is out indefinitely.