For the first time in nearly seven months, Georgia’s baseball team was back at Foley Field, as an entire group, for the first day of fall ball.

“We had a great day. It’s been a long time since we’ve had the entire team out there in uniform practicing, and just going about the business as if everything were normal,” skipper Scott Stricklin told UGASports. “It was good to be back and have everyone out there today.”

Thursday marked the first of 27 practices over a 45-day period for the Bulldogs. They won’t be allowed to hold exhibition games, but can have intra-squad scrimmages such as the annual Red and Black World Series, which will now take place next month.

Stricklin, entering his eighth season as head coach, enters the fall with 44 players on his current roster, including returning outfielders Ben Anderson, Riley King, Randon Jernigan, and Connor Tate, infielders Cole Tate, Garrett Blaylock, Buddy Floyd, and Chaney Rogers, along with catchers Mason Meadows and Shane Marshall.

Despite the loss of first-round pick Emerson Hancock and third-round pick Cole Wilcox, the Bulldogs bring back plenty of potential replacements, led by Jonathan Cannon (3-0, 0.00), Will Childers (1-0, 0.79), Michael Polk (0-0, 0.00), C.J. Smith (0-1, 3.32), and Ryan Webb (2-0, 1.20).

Stricklin notes that he won't waste any time seeing what he has got on his hands.

Typically, the Bulldogs would wait a week or so before their first scrimmage. But with so many players not able to play summer ball, he wants them to see as much live action as he can.

“We’re scrimmaging today. Typically, we'd have a week of practice before we started scrimmaging. But we just feel like it's important to play as much as possible,” he said. “Our arms are fresh, and we need to get them on the mound. Our hitters need to have live at-bats, and the freshmen need to see game action, so we’re going to play scrimmages as much as we can this fall.”

Along with a group of six second-year players who didn't get to play as freshmen, the Bulldogs are bringing in a freshman class that was ranked the 10th-best in the country, according to Perfect Game USA.

Three of the bigger names to watch are catchers Corey Collins and Fernando Gonzalez, along with infielder Parks Harber,, who projects as a big-time power threat.

“Position player-wise, Corey Collins, Harber, Gonzales—those three freshmen really stand out. They act like they’re 25-years-old, and they look like they’re 25-years-old,” Stricklin said. “They’re just really mature, strong, physical players who are going to make an impact for us, and we’ve got a lot of other freshmen who are great athletes who are going to push for playing time.”

On the mound, Stricklin also mentioned left-handed pitchers Luke Wagner and Jake Woods, along with righties Max DeJong, Hank Bearden, and Will Pearson, who's the son of former Bulldogs baseball coach Phillip Pearson.

The Bulldogs also welcome Florida transfer Nolan Crisp, who will be in the mix for closer, as well as pitcher-outfielder Ben Harris, who's eligible this year after sitting out 2020, following his transfer from Virginia.

Redshirt freshman pitcher Garrett Brown underwent successful Tommy John surgery on his left elbow Thursday, Stricklin confirmed.

The Manchester native will miss the upcoming season, but is expected to make a complete recovery.

“It’s not completely torn, but there's some damage in there where the doctor recommended we do it,” Stricklin said. “If you're going to do it, this is the time to do it, because he'll be 100 percent this time next year—and that athletic, that competitive and hard-working. He’s going to be one of those guys who comes back better. So I wouldn't be shocked if that’s the next guy you see throwing 100 MPH at the University of Georgia.”

At 6-foot-7 and 210 pounds, Brown appeared in four games, posting a 4.96 ERA in 16.1 innings.

“Certainly, it affects the innings,” Stricklin said. “He was one of the guys who was going to be in contention for one of those rotation spots, whether it be the weekend or midweek. He was going to pitch some, for sure.”

Stricklin said it remains unclear what the 2021 baseball schedule will look like and what protocols might be in place. But baseball there will be.

“It’s like everything else—it's kind of wait and see. We’ve had conference calls with all the coaches in the league; our administrators,” Stricklin said. “There’s still a lot of shoulder-shrugging going on, because we still don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re going to play college baseball. We’re very confident that’s going to happen.” However, at this time, there are no other details.

“What it looks like, we don’t know. Will the season move back a couple of weeks? Will we play conference only? Will we play conference-only plus a select few non-conference games? We just don't know yet. We don't know if we're going to have no fans, full fans, 50 percent, 75 percent. We hope we’ll be able to have Foley Field filled to capacity, but we just don’t know yet.”