Already without projected Friday night starter Jonathan Cannon due to mononucleosis, Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin revealed that lefty Ryan Webb has been dealing with Covid-19 and is doubtful for next weekend’s opening series against Evansville.

“He’s (Webb) behind a little bit, and we don’t know if he’s going to be ready for that first weekend,” Stricklin said. “He’s throwing 95 mph, and looks normal. But we’ve got to build him up. When you have got high draft picks like that, you’ve got to take care of them.”

The Bulldogs hope to have Webb back for the following weekend’s series against Gardner-Webb (Feb. 26-28), and has his fingers crossed that Cannon will be able to go by the Week 3 series against North Florida (March 5-7).

Webb, who made five starts as a freshman, went 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 15 innings of relief last year for the Bulldogs.

Cannon, meanwhile, did not allow a run in 11.1 innings, and is projected to go in the first round of this summer’s Major League draft.

“Cannon looks great and feels great, but we’ve just got to build him up. So both those guys are very questionable for opening weekend, because we just want to be cautious,” Stricklin said. “So, what you're going to see is some names you probably haven't heard of before— some freshmen and some guys that redshirted. You’ll see those guys on the mound, and I think that benefits us in the long run, because we’ll be able to build some depth.”

Three of the potential replacements include a trio of freshmen in Liam Sullivan, Hank Bearden and Luke Wagner.

Veteran lefty C.J. Smith will likely start the Feb. 19 opener for what will be the first game in a four-game series, including a seven-inning double-header on Feb. 20.

The extra-inning rule adopted by Major League Baseball, in which teams start the 10th with a runner on second base, appears to be coming to the SEC. Well, at least partially.

Stricklin confirmed that during Georgia’s non-conference schedule, he'll meet with the skippers from those teams prior to those games to determine if the format will be used.

The conference’s 14 head coaches are scheduled to meet via Zoom on Thursday to finalize what route the SEC will go once league play gets underway.

“What it looks like is going to happen—it’s only going to happen on getaway day. We'll play regular rules on Friday and Saturday. and if we get to Sunday and it's a getaway day, with travel restrictions, we'll do it,” Stricklin said. “But I think you'll see most of the games we play with the traditional rules of extra innings.”

Stricklin prefers it to be that way.

“Unless someone can bring me a really good case as to why we should speed up our game when it comes to extra innings, I'd prefer to keep it the same—except if we’ve got some extenuating circumstances with getting out of town,” he said.

There are any numbers of reasons Georgia shouldn't be expected to reach the heights the Bulldogs seemed to be headed toward before the 2020 season was canceled due to Covid-19.

Of course, no longer having Cole Wilcox and Emerson Hancock makes a huge difference. Then, Webb and Cannon are recovering from Covid and Mono, respectively. And this is not to mention pitchers Will Childers and Garrett Brown, each of whom are out for the year recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Count in the fact that Georgia will be depending on some young position players who need to step up, as well as another deep SEC slate. There’s certainly reason to expect a few growing pains.

However, according to veteran Riley King, no excuses will be accepted.

“No doubt. The new mantra this year is 'rise above',” King said. “All the things that have happened this year, all the negatives, all the unknowns, don’t give us any excuse. We're going out to compete. As always, our goal is to win a national championship.”

Still King, slated to be the Bulldogs’ primary left fielder, acknowledges the pain left from last year’s season being ripped away when the team was 14-4. It's something the team still thinks about.

“We keep that in our mind; it’s motivation for us,” King said. “Growing up, you were always taught to play like it was your last game, but until last year, it never really hit you until it actually was. That was the first time any of us had the game taken away from us, and that’s really helped us appreciate and respect the game more.”

There's some good news on the injury/illness front for the Bulldogs.

Lefty starter C.J. Smith is feeling better than ever after a balky back caused him problems his freshman and sophomore seasons.

“The main thing for me is keeping a healthy core. I kind of let that one slide by freshman and sophomore year,” Smith said. “I’ve been able to get rid of the six-pack flab, and get some six-pack abs. That’s been key to my health. So far so good. There are no complaints on that front. The back is doing good right now.”

In his fourth year with the program, Smith was off to a good start, going 0-1 with a 3.32 ERA in 19 innings before last season was cancelled.

…Smith had positive words for all Georgia’s freshmen pitchers, including Jaden Wood and Liam Sullivan. “The list goes on and on,” Smith said. “I don’t think there’s a freshman pitcher who's come on campus who's not throwing lights out right now.”

Center fielder Ben Anderson agreed.

“The way Jaden throws his fastball, it just jumps at you,” he said. “It’s different because of its vertical break, so it jumps on you and gets there quicker than you expect.”

…As far as position players, Anderson mentioned freshmen catcher/designated hitter Corey Collins, Luke Wagner, and first baseman Parks Harber.

“Parks Harber has unreal power,” Anderson said. “He can hit the ball a long way, and always has good at-bats.”