Georgia at Georgia Southern
WHERE: J.I. Clements Stadium (Statesboro)
WHEN: Friday 6:30 p.m., Saturday 1 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.,
RECORDS: No. 13 Georgia 7-1; Georgia Southern 3-4
PROBABLE PITCHERS: Friday – Emerson Hancock (2-0, 0.00) vs Seth Shuman (0-2, 8.00); Saturday – Tony Locey (2-0, 3.27) vs Braden Hays (0-1, 5.00); Sunday – Cole Wilcox (0-0, 10.80) vs Daniel Collins (0-1, 0.82).
TV/RADIO: ESPN+
After making his first three appearances out of the bullpen, touted freshman Cole Wilcox will make his starting debut for Georgia on Sunday in Game 3 of this weekend’s series at Georgia Southern.
The decision to go with Wilcox was two-fold. First, the Bulldogs wanted to give Will Proctor – Georgia’s Saturday starter against Dayton and UMass Lowell – a break to rest his arm. Second, Wilcox is coming off his best outing of the young season, a scoreless two-inning stint Wednesday against Kennesaw State, an effort that skipper Scott Stricklin hopes was a harbinger of what’s to come.
Wilcox had given up six earned runs in three innings before his latest effort, which helped convince Stricklin the timing was right to insert him into the starting rotation.
“That was big. He can finally breathe a little bit. That’s what we see all the time,” Stricklin said after Wednesday’s 11-1 win against KSU. “He’s had some bad luck. He’s had some balls fall on him; he’s fallen behind in counts 0-2 and gotten ball up, but I thought his stuff was really good today, was up to 97 with a good changeup and slider. He’s a good athlete; it’s just a matter of time for him. This was big for him to go out and throw two innings like that, and it will do wonders for his confidence.”
A graduate of Heritage High School, Wilcox was projected to be a first-round pick in last June’s Major League Draft before telling teams that he fully intended to honor his commitment to the Bulldogs.
He spent the past summer with Team USA’s 18U squad that captured the gold medal in last year’s World Cup.
“That was huge,” second baseman LJ Talley said of Wilcox’s Wednesday showing. “Cole has the most talent out of anybody, probably. He just needed to get his confidence up. He’s a really good pitcher.”
Game 1 is set for Friday at 6:30 with Emerson Hancock (2-0, 0.00) getting the start for the Bulldogs with Tony Locey (2-0, 3.27) bumped up from Sunday to take Saturday’s 1 p.m. start.
“We’ve got to be ready to play because they will be ready to go down there. Coach (Rodney) Hennon will have them ready, they really scrap and claw, their fans will be ready. It should be fun,” Stricklin said. “It’s an SEC primer for us. We go to South Carolina in three weeks, so going to Statesboro will get us prepared for that.”
