Injuries force rotation revamp

WHERE: Florida Ballpark at Alfred A McKethan Field

WHEN: Friday 6:30 p.m., Saturday 6:30 p.m., Sunday Noon.

RECORDS: Georgia 28-18, 11-13, Florida 33-15, 15-9

STARTING PITCHERS: Friday - Liam Sullivan (1-1, 3.96) vs Tommy Mace (5-0, 4.43); Saturday – Jaden Woods (3-0, 4.00) vs Hunter Barco (8-2, 4.26); Sunday – TBA vs Franco Aleman (1-2, 5.17)

TV/RADIO: Friday-Saturday: SEC Network Plus (Mick Hubert, Nick Belmonte); Sunday – SEC Network (Clay Matvick, Todd Walker); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler, David Johnston)

It’s been a difficult year for Georgia as far as its pitching staff is concerned.

With Wednesday’s news that senior Ryan Webb is being shut down with an elbow injury, that makes four of the projected top-five hurlers for the Bulldogs now out for the rest of the season.

The current situation certainly has put head coach Scott Stricklin and pitching coach Sean Kenny in a bit of a quandary.

Webb, CJ Smith, Will Childers and Jarrett Brown each were supposed to play integral roles. Unfortunately, Childers and Brown both underwent Tommy John surgery in the fall. Smith pitched earlier in the year, but developed a sore arm, and despite his best efforts, is unable to continue.

Subsequently, the Bulldogs have had to rely on its freshmen and will do so again when the Bulldogs (28-18, 11-13) travel to No. 7 Florida (33-15, 15-9).

As he did last week against Arkansas, freshman Liam Sullivan (1-1, 3.96) will get the call on Friday (7 p.m., SEC Network+) with fellow freshman Jaden Woods (3-0, 4.00) coming out of the bullpen to start on Saturday’s. Sunday’s starter is TBA, although sophomore Jonathan Cannon (2-2, 4.53) could get the call. Stricklin said he and Kenny are also debating using Cannon out of the bullpen this weekend.

If Sullivan can repeat his performance against the Razorbacks, the Bulldogs will certainly take that.

Sullivan was spectacular, going a season-long six innings, giving up just one run on three hits, recording just one walk and notching 11 strikeouts.

Combine the four scoreless innings he pitched the week before against Auburn, Sullivan’s last 10 innings have seen him give up just four hits, one run, and 16 strikeouts. Take away the six earned runs he allowed in the opening weekend of SEC play against Tennessee, and his league ERA is a 2.43 with three earned runs allowed (11.1 innings) and 18 strikeouts.

“He should feel good about his last 10 innings in the league. You look at his numbers, it’s skewered, because when you’re a relief pitcher, you have one bad outing and everything goes out the window,” Stricklin said. “But you look at what he’s done his last 10 innings in the league against two really good offensive teams, he’s pitched really well.”

Sullivan and the Bulldogs will obviously have their work cut out.

The Gators are the fourth-best hitting team in the SEC with a batting average of .283. Florida's 328 runs are the fifth-highest in the SEC.

“The key for him is getting ahead in the count and be able to control that fastball. Against Arkansas, he really had all four pitches working, breaking ball, slider, and a changeup well. We just need to get him off to a good start,” Stricklin said. “Florida is a really good offensive team, and they can put some pressure on you. I think his confidence level is high, it should be very high, but you really need to have a good first inning to kind of get our feet wet, feel good about where you are and just go from there.”

Obviously, this is a series Georgia needs to well.

The Bulldogs are still very much in contention for a place in the postseason. Yet to assure themselves of a spot in the field of 64, Georgia could need to win one of their remaining two series against the Gators or Ole Miss next week in Athens.

“College baseball is the most talented it’s ever been right now, from top to bottom. It’s one of those things, hopefully we can play well these last two weekends and cement ourselves into the postseason, not just for the SEC Tournament but beyond it,” Stricklin said. “After that, you’ve just got to get hot and play really well down the stretch.”

Stricklin has no doubt his team, despite its pitching injuries, will be ready to play.

Georgia’s eighth-year coach points out nobody gave his team much chance against No. 1 Vanderbilt. His Bulldogs took two of three games. Ditto for last week’s series at Arkansas. Although Georgia lost the series 2-1, the Bulldogs were in a position to win that series as well.

“We’ve had two chances to go on the road and play. Vanderbilt, everyone thought they were a runaway No. 1 team, but we went up there and played pretty well, and right now, everyone thinks that Arkansas is the No. 1 runaway team, and we went toe to toe,” he said. “We had every chance to win that series and I felt like we played really well the entire weekend.”

Stricklin said he expects his team will head to Gainesville with the same mindset it did to Nashville and Fayetteville.

“That’s kind of the mentality we’re going to have going down there,” Stricklin said. “No one thinks you can win this series, everyone is going to pick Florida, so let’s have that chip on your shoulder and play with that mentality and surprise everybody but ourselves because we believe we can win the series.”

Wednesday’s news that Foley Field will be allowed to be full capacity for next week’ regular-season finale against Ole Miss was certainly welcomed news.

“I’m really excited. I got the heads up (Tuesday night) that we were going to announce this (Wednesday), but I was excited,” Stricklin said. “We got to play in front of a full house at Arkansas, it was a packed house for all three nights, and it really adds so much to the game.”

Bulldog right fielder Connor Tate agreed.

“It was like old times. It really gets you prepared for the game,” Tate said. “When there’s a lot of people there cheering for you, it really makes the atmosphere exciting to play.”

Foley Field seats 3,200 fans and will be officially become the first venue at UGA allowed to have full capacity since February of 2020 when the Covid pandemic began.

“The fans who have been able to come to Foley have been great, but just to be able to have a full house, have every seat filled up and people being loud – I just hope the weather cooperates, but man it’s exciting news and it’s obviously going to be a big series for us, too. We’ll need all the help we can get,” Stricklin said. “It adds to the excitement, it adds to the adrenalin and I can tell you our players were pumped when they heard about the news and I can tell you they’re pumped to play in front of a sellout crowd.”

…On Friday, Ben Anderson, Darryn Pasqua, C.J. Smith, Cole Tate and Connor Tate will be the latest Bulldogs to earn a UGA degree along with student assistant coach Nelson Ward, who played for the Bulldogs from 2012-14. They join Riley King, Logan Moody and Mason Meadows who graduated last year and returned to play in 2021. Hunter Cole and LJ Talley, who are playing professional baseball, have finished their degree requirements. They will graduate Friday too. Also of note, Chaney Rogers and Ryan Webb are slated to finish their degree this summer along with current professional Bulldogs in Michael Curry and Zac Kristofak.

...Redshirt junior right fielder Connor Tate (.348-10-30) has a chance for the “UGA Triple Crown,” and he’s been one of the best hitters in the SEC too. Eight of his 10 home runs have come in league play where he is batting .333 with perfect fielding in 44 total chances. Tate has reached base safely in 26 straight games and has a nine-game hitting streak, both career-highs. Identical twin Cole Tate (.320-2-19), who has started 42 games at shortstop, has a 16-game on base streak and a seven-game hitting streak, both career highs. Cole hit .545 against the Razorbacks (6-for-11) with four runs scored and perfect fielding in 10 total chances. Both will graduate Friday.