JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An 8-4 loss to Florida in Friday night’s exhibition at 121 Financial Ball Park notwithstanding, Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin liked what he saw.

Especially, as it pertains to his freshmen pitchers.

“The biggest thing to me was just getting some of these new guys’ experience. This was the first time for a lot of them to play in this atmosphere and the five freshmen we threw tonight was good,” Stricklin said. “They gave up a couple of runs but I thought they deserved better than that. But I was excited with the way they handled themselves.”

Pitching was indeed the story.

Although the Gators scored four of their eight runs off Nolan Crisp in the third, Bulldog pitchers – especially its freshmen – impressed.

Between them, Kolten Smith, Jarvis Evans, Blake Gillespie, Leighton Finley, and Matthew Hoskins combined to hold Florida to one earned run over five innings with 10 strikeouts.

The 10 strikeouts represented almost half of the 23 Georgia pitchers combined to tally, including starter Jaden Woods who allowed just one hit with five strikeouts over the first two innings.

Transfers Kyle Greenler struck out the side in the eighth, while Dalton Rhadans got one of the game’s bigger outs when he came one to strike out Florida’s No. 2 hitter Wyatt Lanford with the bases loaded in the fourth.

“Obviously, Jaden was great to start the game,” Stricklin said. “You strike out a team like that 23 times, which was encouraging.”

Offensively, the Bulldogs collected 10 hits but hit into three double plays. Cole Wagner and Fernando Gonzalez led Georgia with two hits each.

Long Beach State transfer Sebastian Murillo drove in the first run with a single to right in the seventh, followed by Josh Stinson who came through with a two-run single in the ninth.

Freshman outfielder Justin Thomas also showed his potential when he lined a double off the top of the wall in right-center fielder, just missing a home run in the eighth. He ultimately scored on a wild pitch.

“We didn’t play well the first half of the game, Florida was the aggressor and we kind of got on our heels a little bit, but I’m really happy with the way we competed late, and I thought we had some good at-bats,” Stricklin said. “We could have broken it open early. Charlie Condon hit the ball hard off the bat and hit into a double play. It stinks to lose, you want to win no matter what kind of game you’re playing, but the object of this was to give our young kids experience and I thought we did that.

Boxscore

Jaden Woods: Woods pitched the first two innings. He allowed one hit, and zero walks with five strikeouts. He topped out at 95 mph. In two fall outings, Woods pitched 4.1 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts.

Nolan Crisp: Crisp struggled after striking out the first batters in the third. After back-to-back walks, three straight hits played four runs for Florida.

Liam Sullivan: Sullivan started the fourth but did not make it out of the inning, issuing a trio of walks and a wild pitch that accounted for a run.

Dalton Rhadans: The right-handed sidewinder from Wofford came on with the bases loaded in the fourth and ended the inning with a 68-mph change.

Kolten Smith: Freshman pitched the fifth inning, and allowed a run on an infield hit. He did strike out the side.

Jarvis Evans: Pitched the sixth and gave up a run. He struck out two.

Kyle Greenler: Pitched the seventh and struck out the side, although the Gators scored an unearned run.

Blake Gillespie: Freshman tossed a 1-2-3 with a strikeout.

Leighton Finley: Freshman struck out two batters in the ninth.

Matthew Hoskins: Freshman struck out two in the 10th.

Cole Wagner: Had two of Georgia’s 10 hits. One of his hits was a double.

Fernando Gonzalez: Had two more hits for the Bulldogs.

Josh Stinson: Came off the bench to deliver a two-run double in the eighth. Stinson also made a tremendous running catch in center field to take away a hit in the bottom of the ninth.

Sebastian Murillo: Drove in Georgia’s first run with an RBI single to right in the seventh.

Garrett Spikes: Went 1 for 2 with a double.

Justin Thomas: Freshman lined a double off the top of the wall in right-center, just missing a home run.