Georgia vs Georgia Tech

WHEN: Friday-Sunday

WHERE: Friday - Russ Chandler Stadium, Atlanta, 6 p.m.; Saturday – Foley Field, 2 p.m.; Sunday – Coolray Field, Lawrenceville, 2 p.m.

RECORDS: No. 14 Georgia (8-0), No. 19 Georgia Tech (8-1).

STARING PITCHERS: Friday – RHP Jonathan Cannon (2-0, 0.00) vs RHP Chance Huff (1-0, 2.45); Friday – LHP Liam Sullivan (1-0, 5.14) vs RHP Zach Maxwell (1-0, 3.00); Sunday – TBA vs TBA

TV/RADIO: Friday and Sunday (ACC Network Extra); Saturday – SEC Network+ (Jason Jacobs and Brett DeLoach); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler and David Johnston).

Just three weeks into the season and already Georgia’s starting rotation has taken a bit of a hit.

Thursday, Bulldog baseball coach Scott Stricklin said that junior college transfer and Sunday starter Dylan Ross will not be available for Sunday’s game against Georgia Tech after coming out with a dead arm Tuesday night against Wofford.

“He’s out for the weekend. We’re kind of still evaluating where he is,” Stricklin said. “We’ll probably know in the next couple of days what the final diagnosis is, but he’s out for the weekend. It’s disappointing for him, it’s disappointing for us. We will just have to wait and see.”

Ross, who gave up just one run over five innings two weeks ago against Albany, came out of Tuesday’s game in the bottom of the second innings.

“He said it (his arm) just feels dead,” Stricklin said. “He got evaluated yesterday (Thursday). We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with that.”

The timing is unfortunate.

Georgia kicks off a three-game series with arch-rival Georgia Tech, starting with Friday night’s game at Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta. The first pitch is at 6 p.m.

On Saturday, the series switches to Athens before wrapping up on Sunday at Coolray Field in Lawrenceville. Both those games are set for 2 p.m.

“I know he hates that he can’t be out there this weekend but hopefully we can get him healthy and get him back out there,” Friday starter Jonathan Cannon said. “We’ve got a ton of arms. I think we’ve proved it up to this point. We’ve been able to pick each other up. Our bullpen has been outstanding. It’s going to be that next man up mentality, and I think whoever gets the ball is going to do that on Sunday.”

Right now, who starts Sunday’s finale is up in the air.

“We’ll TBA it,” Cannon said. “We’ve got several candidates to do it. We might go back to the good ole bullpen day. It was successful for us last year. We may do that on Sunday. We just don’t know yet. We’ll get through Friday and Saturday then see where we are.”

It’s going to be a busy week for the Bulldogs.

Counting this weekend’s series against the Yellow Jackets, Georgia will play eight games over the next 10 days. Next Tuesday, the Bulldogs play Georgia Southern in Augusta and Wednesday in Statesboro before returning home for three next Friday against Lipscomb.

The good news is Georgia will be adding an arm.

Stricklin said that redshirt sophomore Will Childers, who missed last year with Tommy John, will start Tuesday’s game against the Eagles. As a true freshman, Childers pitched 11.1 innings, giving up just one earned run with 13 strikeouts.

“It’s a good week to get Will Childers back,” Stricklin said. “He’s thrown really good. He will be on a pitch count, but it was really encouraging what we saw from him on the mound.”

Although Childers’ role moving forward is still unclear, Stricklin said the Evans native could figure into the rotation, either as a future midweek starter or perhaps the weekend depending on Ross’ injury.

“Possibly. The first outing we just wanted it to be as comfortable as possible,” Stricklin said. “When you’re the starting pitcher you’ve got all the time in the world to warm up. You don’t have to worry about getting ready quickly in the bullpen, so we wanted his first outing to be a start, just so we could get settled in.”

Luke Wagner and Garret Brown are other candidates to start.

“We’ve got a lot of options, and a strong and deep bullpen,” Stricklin said. “Pitching wise I think we’re still in pretty good shape.”

Stricklin was asked about sophomore Jaden Woods, but Georgia’s coach said the former Houston County standout will remain a key figure in the bullpen for now.

“It’s comforting to have him back there, to have Jack Gowen back there, Nolan Crisp, Will Pearson and Collin Caldwell all there together in the back of that bullpen,” he said. “They give us a lot of options.”