When Scott Stricklin looks back at the statistics and the areas his Georgia team struggled with for much of the year, two come immediately to mind.
Too many strikeouts by the hitters and walks by the pitchers were the bane of the Bulldogs.
Georgia struck out 510 times, tied with South Carolina for 11th-most in the league, ahead of just Vanderbilt (512), Ole Miss (516) and Tennessee (517). On the mound, Georgia’s 260 walks were next-to-last, ahead of only Missouri (260). A respectable team ERA of 3.91 was the sixth-best in the conference.
Looking ahead to 2022, Stricklin said those numbers have to improve.
“We’ve got to cut down on our strikeouts and we walked way too many people,” said Stricklin, whose pitchers had six games where they walked 10 or more batters. “Those two stats are the ones that jump out. We’ve got to put the ball in play more, put more pressure on defenses and quit giving up free bases.”
Georgia’s coach is counting on a year’s experience helping to take care of that particular issue. Six true freshmen saw significant action on the mound for the Bulldogs, with walks being an issue for each.
“The amount of walks that we had, I think, is a by-product of the injuries we had on the staff and how many young pitchers had to throw for us,” Stricklin said. “I think that will clean up by itself and I think next year offensively that will clean up because we’ll have guys with more experience, guys who will have been through this league.”
Stricklin confirmed that hitting coach Scott Daeley and pitching coach Sean Kenny will return next year.
Georgia’s season came to end Monday when the NCAA selection committee failed to select the Bulldogs (31-25, 41 RPI), despite an RPI higher than three teams (North Carolina, 47), UC-Santa Barbara (51) and Michigan (88) in the tourney, plus a victory over LSU in the opening round of the SEC Tournament.
Stricklin disputed the notion that his team’s strength of schedule somehow negatively affected his team’s ability to make the field.
“I think our strength of schedule was 13th, so our strength of schedule is not an issue with us. We’ll go back to playing Georgia Tech three times, we’ll play Georgia Southern three times, we play Clemson twice and then you play 30 games in the SEC,” Stricklin said. “Our strength of schedule every year is going to be top 20 for sure, and I think a couple of years ago it was either No. 1 or No. 2. I think we take care of the strength of schedule, but at the end of the day, you have to take care of business in the league. I think we all feel like if we had won one more game in the league, then we’re in. It’s mind-boggling it came down to this, it’s that close, but that’s where we are.”
A 5-12 record over Georgia’s final 17 games certainly did not help Georgia’s cause, a fact Stricklin acknowledged hurt his Bulldogs as much as anything.
“It really doesn’t matter too much for teams in the SEC what you do in the non-conference, as long as you are around that .500 mark, 14, 15, 16 wins, you’re in automatically, so you’ve got to take care of business in the league,” Stricklin said. “You’ve got to minimize the 'What ifs' and you do that with more experience. We’ll do that with a club that has more arms, more options on the mound and I think offensively we’ve got a chance to be really good as well.”
Plenty of questions also remain.
Stricklin knows he’ll return a solid core that includes the likes of Parks Harber, Corey Collins, Fernando Gonzalez, Luke Wagner, Liam Sullivan, Jaden Woods, Hank Bearden, Will Pearson, Kameron Guidry, Josh Stinson, and Garrett Spikes.
However, with Major League Draft pushed back to mid-July and the NCAA granting a one-time waiver to all athletes, Stricklin and college baseball coaches everywhere are having to play a huge guessing game when it comes to figuring out what their teams will look like next spring.
“We’re assuming Jonathan Cannon, and Ryan Webb, even with his injury, is still going to get drafted really high. We think Connor Tate is going to go pretty good, but the other guys, you just don’t know,” Stricklin said. “It just makes it really difficult. We had our exit interviews with our older players (Monday) and there’s just a whole lot of uncertainty. Nobody knows. All the draftable players, they want to come back, but we don’t know what’s going to happen with the draft and they don’t either.
"It’s one of those things where it’s a lot of wait and see.”
Players like the afore-mentioned Connor Tate, Cole Tate, Garrett Blaylock, and Chaney Rogers are among the draft-eligible players eligible to return under the one-time waiver rule should they so desire.
Of the incoming freshman, Houston County pitcher Coleman Willis, Sandy Creek infielder Glenn Green and JUCO pitcher Dylan Ross are three signees Stricklin has his fingers crossed as far as the draft is concerned.
Of course, there’s the ever-present transfer portal, which Stricklin acknowledged he and his staff will be keeping an eye on.
“There are so many players from the state of Georgia, that maybe want to come back. So, it’s going to be a little of the Wild, Wild West. It’s going to be a little bit crazy,” Stricklin said. “But yeah, the portal is something we will look at. We look at it every day. We’re always up to date to see who is in the portal, see who is available and you just got to do roster management to see where you are.”
