Georgia Southern at Georgia
WHEN: Tuesday, 6 p.m.
WHERE: Foley Field
RECORDS: Georgia 18-6, Georgia Southern 17-7
STARTING PITCHERS: Georgia – RH Hank Bearden (0-0, 0.00); Georgia Southern – LH Danny Madden (0-0, 6.46).
TV/RADIO: SECNetwork+; Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler, David Johnston)
For pitchers not named Jonathan Cannon, it’s been a tough past two weekends against Mississippi State and Kentucky.
The junior right-hander has been spectacular, defeating both the maroon Bulldogs and Wildcats to establish himself as one of the top starters in the entire SEC.
After that, it has not been pretty.
Take away Cannon’s 4-2 victory Friday night in Lexington, Georgia pitchers have surrendered 59 runs in four out of the team’s last five SEC games.
Georgia (18-6) entertains Georgia Southern (17-7) Tuesday afternoon before resuming SEC play Thursday at Foley Field against Florida.
Obviously, injuries have not helped. Losing Sunday starter Dylan Ross (arm) and Will Childers (elbow) for the year certainly have not helped matters.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, nobody else has stepped up. That has head coach Scott Stricklin and pitching coach Sean Kenny scrambling for answers.
“It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for everybody and it’s frustrating for them, too,” Stricklin told UGASports Monday morning. “It turns into pressing, trying to do too much, trying to be too fine and the next thing you know, you’re walking a guy instead of being aggressive and trusting your stuff to get guys out. Bottom line, guys need to trust the stuff that they have, go out and get the job the done.”
One pitcher that could certainly help Georgia’s cause is sophomore left-hander Liam Sullivan.
The Bulldogs’ Saturday starter to being the year, Sullivan has missed the previous two weekends with what Stricklin has described as a sore arm.
There appears to be some good news. Although Sullivan will not pitch this week against Florida, Stricklin said his pitcher has suffered no setbacks but will need to throw an intrasquad game before given the green light to return.
“He threw a bullpen yesterday, it was his second bullpen and he felt good. He looked good, but we made the decision that his first time in the mound probably should not be against Florida,” Stricklin said. “We want to see some intrasquad, so he’s going to throw live on Friday to our hitters, just to get him acclimated and make sure that he’s ready to go. But he’s trending in the right direction. We were hopeful that he was going to be able to pitch this weekend, but right now, it looks like he will throw live on Friday to our guys, check that box and get ready for the following weekend.”
Stricklin said Sullivan (2-1, 3.68) is anxious to get back to work.
“He is, and it’s been encouraging. Right when he had the soreness, the body language wasn’t great, and his verbiage wasn’t great. It was like, 'I feel OK', and when you hear a pitcher say that, he doesn’t feel very good. But now, it’s great, I feel really good,” Stricklin said. “So, his body language is better, the way he’s talking about it is a lot better. It’s all trending in the right direction.”
Until he returns, Stricklin and Kenny will need to navigate a tough stretch that will see the Bulldogs play four games over the next five days.
Even with a full and healthy staff, this would be tricky. With the injuries and number of pitchers struggling, that’s going to be an interesting proposition.
Seldom-used Hank Bearden (0-0, 0.00) will start Tuesday against the Eagles, but this weekend the Georgia could face the Gators with two different starters in its weekend rotation. The Bulldogs and Gators begin play a day earlier than usual on Thursday with the series ending Saturday afternoon.
Cannon (5-1, 1.96) will pitch on Friday, so he can keep his weekly regimen and not have to ramp up a day early.
That leaves finding a new starter for Thursday, with Saturday’s starter also up in the air.
Garrett Brown has been a consistent weekend staple since the injury to Ross, but with a 6.91 ERA (11 earned runs in 14.1 innings), Stricklin he’s considering a change for the junior who missed last year after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
“It’s a little up in the air (on Brown). Again, we’ll figure that out after Tuesday night,” Stricklin said. “His stuff is good; he just needs to keep getting out there. It’s kind of the position that we’re in.”
Possible options include right-hander Michael Polk, who was the lone pitching bright spot in Saturday’s 10-8 loss with 3.2 innings of perfect relief with two strikeouts.
Other possibilities include Luke Wagner (5-1, 3.63), maybe Chandler Marsh (1-0, 2.79). Stricklin did not rule out sophomore left-hander Jaden Woods (0-0, 2.98).
Woods has been an integral part of the bullpen, despite giving up a team-leading five home runs. He closed out Cannon’s victory on Friday with two innings of scoreless relief to pick up his first save.
“Jaden was great. Jaden came in there and saved that game for us. It was maybe the best he’s been this year and I thought he grew up. He showed us some breaking balls, shook to some breaking balls, which he normally doesn’t do. I thought he was really good,” Stricklin said. “He’s a big key to this. His role right now is to help us win games. What that ends up being … he’s a big part of what we’re doing.”
Stricklin said that Jake Poindexter is expected to follow Bearden Tuesday afternoon, along with Max DeJong, another young pitcher who Stricklin feels deserves another opportunity.
“We haven’t named a starter for Thursday yet, but we’re working around some ideas of what we want to do. We haven’t decided on that yet, but we should probably know tomorrow after the Georgia Southern game. We should probably have a better idea of what we want to do,” Stricklin said. “We want to do everything we can to win tomorrow, and then see."
NOTE: Starting shortstop Cole Tate was a late scratch Sunday after missing the past four games with a sore quad, but Stricklin hopes he will return as soon as Tuesday night, although Thursday seems more likely.
“Cole was a late scratch (Sunday). He stiffened up and the cold conditions did not help,” Stricklin said. “He was in the lineup, and we had to change the lineup right before the game because he couldn’t get loose.”
