Baseball Notebook: Webb set for return

WHERE: Foley Field

WHEN: Saturday DH noon; Sunday 1 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia 4-1; Gardner-Webb 1-2

TV/RADIO: ESPN3 (Jeff Dantzler and David Johnston); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler and David Johnston)

Georgia and Gardner-Webb will now play a split doubleheader Saturday starting at Noon at Foley Field due to Friday’s game being postponed for inclement weather.

Fans with a ticket to Friday’s game may use that for Saturday’s first contest at noon. Fans will be asked to clear Foley Field after the first game so the facility can be sanitized.

Saturday's doubleheader will now feature two nine-inning games.

The second game on Saturday will not start before 4:30 p.m. Fans with a ticket to Saturday’s game may use that for the second game of the doubleheader. Both Saturday games will be nine innings. Fans must have a ticket to each game in which they plan to attend. The Bulldogs (4-1) were set to play Gardner-Webb (1-2) in a four-game series, however now it will be only three games. Sunday’s game will remain a single contest starting at 1 p.m.

After missing the opening weekend while recovering from Covid, senior lefty Ryan Webb will give Georgia’s starting rotation a shot of experience when he returns to the mound during this weekend’s series against Gardner-Webb.

According to head coach Scott Stricklin, Webb will pitch the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, set to start at noon. Webb, who is 4-5 with a 3.77 ERA in 44 career appearances with the Bulldogs, will be on a pitch count (40-50 pitches) that Stricklin hopes will carry him through at least three innings.

With the schedule change, Webb will pitch the second game of Saturday's double header with C.J. Smith getting the call in Game 2. Freshman Jaden Woods will start in Sunday's finale.

“He’s doing well. It’s tough keeping him off the mound, and he’s wanted to go every single day since he got back on track,” Stricklin said. “From day one he’s looked 100 percent, but we’ve been taking it slow. He’s faced hitters twice and actually did that yesterday before we left. He's slated to start on Saturday.”

Stricklin hopes to have freshman infielder Parks Harber back Sunday after being unable to swing the bat for the past week.

“Parks got a little banged up from last weekend; right now, he’s day to day,” Stricklin said. “He didn’t travel (Wednesday), just to get some extra rehab. He is going to try and swing a little today. My hope is that maybe by Sunday he can be back in a game, but we'll see. I haven’t seen him yet today, but he was in the training room, so hopefully soon, he’ll be ready to go.”

Once healthy, Harber is expected to split duties on first base with Chaney Rogers, with other opportunities potentially coming at designated hitter and third base.

A highly touted true freshman, Harber batted .431 with 10 homers and 46 RBI as a sophomore at The Westminster School before missing the majority of his junior season with a wrist injury. His senior year, like everyone else's, was cancelled due to Covid.

Freshman catcher Fernando Gonzalez has perhaps the most interesting story on the Georgia baseball team.

As a 16-year-old, the native of Panama moved on his own to Florida, where he lived with a host family for a year before matriculating to Marietta. Then he signed with Georgia and joined the Bulldogs last August.

He's made a quick impact, starting four of Georgia’s first five games. So far, he's proven to Stricklin that he's not only capable of handling the starting job from a defensive point-point, but also has a chance to develop into one of the team’s better hitters.

Gonzalez comes into this weekend’s series against Gardner-Webb, hitting .429 with six hits in his first 14 at-bats.

“Fernando is really mature. Just to be able to do that shows a lot of maturity,” Stricklin said. “He’s a very calm kid, but his bat is the same—that’s the most consistent thing. He's hitting close to .500 right now, but we still don't feel like he's swinging it as good as he can. We think he can be a run producer for us, and he’s been a real leader back there.”

Gonzalez heads up one of Georgia’s deepest positions. The Bulldogs also boast Shane Marshall, veteran Mason Meadows, and Stricklin said that Corey Collins might get a start after opening as the team’s designated hitter in all five games thus far.

However, from the sound of it, Gonzalez will be hard to keep off the field.

“He’s had some freshman moments we’ve tried to get out of the way, because when you go from high school to college, the game moves a lot faster,” Stricklin said. “Just trying to get him to slow down and get him that experience.”

Every team needs that player with the ability to play multiple positions. In junior Josh McAllister, Stricklin may have found his man.

Although he is currently splitting time with Buddy Floyd at second base, McAllister, much like Riley King, has the ability to fill several different roles for the Bulldogs.

“When I came here last year, I told myself I could play anywhere,” McAllister said. “Two falls ago, I played everything from third base to first base to right field. Wherever Coach put me, that was fine, as long as I could get on the field and get my reps. It’s great, because it doesn’t limit me to one position.”

With two hits in his first seven at-bats, assuming McAllister keeps swinging the bat well, Stricklin will find a spot for him somewhere.

Stricklin said he hopes that Wednesday’s ninth-inning home run will be just the tonic needed for veteran Riley King, who otherwise has gotten off to a slow start with just two hits in his first 16 at-bats.

“It was huge for him; he was getting frustrated. Like every time he hit the ball hard, it was right at somebody,” Stricklin said. “Last year was kind of the same thing. We keep track of quality at-bats and hard-hit balls, and Riley led our team in hard-hit balls last year and had one of the lowest batting averages.

King has not been the only Bulldog hitting with some early bad luck.

Center fielder Ben Anderson is just 1 for his first 16, but Wednesday hit his last two balls hard, and Stricklin hopes that proves to be a positive sign.

“Both those guys are off to slow starts, but Ben hit two on the nose (Wednesday) and made two outs,” Stricklin said. “Sometimes baseball is like that. But those guys are both going to get going and are big leaders for us.”

With eight freshman pitchers having already seen action, having someone with the experience of redshirt junior Darryn Pasqua is a welcomed part of the bullpen equation.

Against Georgia State, Pasqua took over for starter Ben Harris and responded with four perfect innings that included five strikeouts. He earned the victory in Wednesday’s 6-2 win.

“My role hasn’t really changed. I’m still pretty much still doing whatever Coach asks me to do, but it's great having all the young freshmen running around,” Pasqua said. “Everybody we have is ready to compete. It’s been exciting to see them go out and have some success.”

This was not Pasqua’s first memorable game.

Two years ago, Pasqua threw a career-best five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in Georgia’s 20-innning win over Clemson.

“I don’t know if anything is ever going to be comparable to that 20-inning game two years ago,” Pasqua said. “That was a special night. But yeah, as far as how everything worked out, it was similar. I’m glad everything worked out, but I’m ready to move forward.”

Gardner-Webb comes into this weekend’s series with a record of 1-2, but the Runnin’ Bulldogs will be throwing a big name at Georgia in Friday’s opening game.

Senior Mason Miller is a 6-foot-5, 200-pound right-hander who tops out at 96 mph. According to Stricklin, he's a potential top three-round pick in this summer’s Major League Draft.

“We’re going to have a ton of scouts here watching him. He’s really talented, has a big-time arm, and they’ve got some good arms out of the bullpen, too,” Stricklin said. “We’ll have to put pressure on them. We’ll have to put the ball in play off Miller, we’ll have to make their defense defend us and try to get into their bullpen as soon as possible.”

In last week’s opener against Wofford, Miller allowed five runs in 5.1 innings, but did strike out nine.