Welcome back Jonathan Cannon.
Pitching in his first game in two weeks, Cannon tossed five innings of perfect baseball. The bullpen held Alabama to two hits over the final four, as No. 14 Georgia blanked the Crimson Tide at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, 3-0.
The win boosts the 14th-ranked Bulldogs to 28-11, 11-6 in the SEC.
Cannon was brilliant.
Despite being on a pitch count after missing his previous two starts due to soreness in the back of his forearm, the right-hander set down all 15 hitters he faced, striking out six.
“It was funny. The home plate umpire, when I made the change did a double-take, like you’re taking him out?” head coach Scott Stricklin said on his post-game radio show on 960-AM. “But we were on a strict pitch count. We (Cannon and Stricklin) talked in the fourth when he was at 51 pitches, and he said ‘Coach, one more.’” It’s not that easy the way he was throwing with all four pitches for strikes. … he threw an awful lot of strikes.”
Cannon (7-1) lowered his ERA to 1.55 in 52.1 innings with 52 strikeouts and just three walks (one intentional).
“It was such a great feeling to be back there,” Cannon said. “I felt good. The training staff did a great job to make sure I was 100 percent. If it had been up to me, I would have been back out there a week ago, but they built me back up to where I am.”
Stricklin was asked how it felt to have his ace righthander back.
“It takes my blood pressure down a little,” said Stricklin, who also received a nice boost from his bullpen.
Lefty Luke Wagner replaced Cannon in the sixth and surrendered Alabama’s only two hits of the day, followed by a scoreless 1.2 innings by freshman Chandler Marsh, who stranded the bases loaded in the seventh.
After setting the Tide down in order in the eighth, it took Jack Gowen just 10 pitches to close out the game. He picked up his eighth save and his second in as many days.
Offensively, the Bulldogs managed just eight hits and settled for just three runs, but it was enough.
Parks Harber gave the Bulldogs all the runs they needed.
With the bases loaded and a 1-2 count, Harber sent a ball off the top of the wall in right for a three-run triple.
That would be all the runs either team scored the rest of the game.
The two teams wrap up their series Sunday at 2. Liam Sullivan (3-1, 5.40) will start for the Bulldogs, who return home on Tuesday against Georgia State (6 p.m.).
