If it sounds strange that is taking a five-game road trip just three weeks into the season, well, it is.

Georgia plays three games at College of Charleston Friday-Sunday, followed by single games at Charleston Southern on Monday and The Citadel on Tuesday before returning home in what will qualify as the Bulldogs’ longest road trip this year.

So, why a five-game road trip at this point of the year?

“When we scheduled it four years ago, this was when we anticipated it being spring break,” Stricklin said. “It’s really tough to schedule. You always have a couple of weeks where you play five games a week, the only difference is we don’t have the Monday off day, so it’s really not that odd.”

In actuality, it’s really not that bad.

There’s worse things to do than spend five days in Charleston, a trip Stricklin feels will be important to the growth of his team.

“The plan was to use this around spring break. We didn’t want to go in the middle of nowhere and spend five or six days, so let’s go to a nice place,” Stricklin said. “I think this will be a good team building time for us, and the good thing is we’ve got the pitching.”

Georgia’s weekend rotation will remain the same.

The Bulldogs (7-1) will go with junior Kevin Smith (1-0, 6.52) for Friday’s 4 p.m. game, with freshmen Emerson Hancock (0-0, 2.45) on Saturday and Chase Adkins (1-0, 1.64) on Sunday.

Tim Elliott (1-0, 4.00) will pitch Monday’s game at Charleston Southern with Tony Locey (1-0, 9.00) getting his first start in Tuesday’s contest at The Citadel.

“I’d love to see these guys stretch to 100 and maybe give us a couple of seven-inning games,” Stricklin said. “We’ll just have to see, but our bullpen is good and deep, what we really encourage about C.J. Smith was the way he came in and pitched. He’s going to be a factor for us if he can be that long relief guy and we do have to pull someone early, C.J. Smith is a guy who can give us those innings.”

NOTES: Georgia leads the all-time series with College of Charleston 4-2. The Bulldogs last faced the Cougars (7-2) to open the 2017 season in Athens. Georgia edged the Cougars 9-8 to avoid a sweep after Charleston took the first two games 9-3 and 15-6. Georgia last faced the Cougars in Charleston in 2013 and the Bulldogs won 5-3. The Bulldogs are 9-0 all-time against Charleston Southern and 1-1 versus The Citadel.