Ole Miss at No. 23 Georgia; Finley doppelganger and more

The resemblance is striking.

At 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds, Georgia’s Leighton Finley could pass as a doppelganger for 6-6, 225-pound Chicago White Sox pitcher and former Bulldog Jonathan Cannon.

Both are blond, both are right-handed, and both like the No. 12. Even their delivery and repertoire of pitches are similar.

“I’ve gotten that a lot since last year,” Finley laughed before practice on Thursday. “People tell me you look like Jonathan Cannon; you throw like him, and you’re wearing his number. I’m like OK, maybe I should watch this guy more.”

Cannon and Finley missed playing with each other by a year.

Last year was Finley’s first year in college baseball, while Cannon made his big league debut Wednesday afternoon with the Chicago White Sox after being drafted in the third round in the summer of 2022.

Cannon accounted well for himself, allowing just one run on three hits with three strikeouts. He left in position for his first win but failed to pick up the victory after the bullpen couldn't hold a 2-1 lead.

“He’s a stud,” Finley said. “It’s crazy. It’s basically telling us that it can be done (reach the Major Leagues), and he’s a prime example.”

An effort Friday night against Ole Miss similar to last week’s showing against Missouri won’t hurt his pro chances.

In five innings, Finley allowed just one run on five hits with six strikeouts, giving head coach Wes Johnson the kind of starting pitching boost Johnson has been needing.

Although he’s yet to reach six innings in any of the nine starts Finely has made his year, getting deeper in games remains the goal.

“I’m trying. I’m getting there. It’s a struggle right now,” Finley said. “It’s gotten better throughout the year, and it’s definitely something I’m working toward.”

He’s not the only one.

Senior Charlie Goldstein is the only Bulldog starter to go more than six innings this year and he’s currently sidelined with shoulder fatigue.

With 40 innings pitched, Finley has already surpassed the 27 innings he threw last year, a factor Johnson admits he’ll be watching.

“Looking at all of our guys, for the most part now, especially with Charlie and the setback he has, now they get to the point where they can get six innings, but they’ve also thrown more innings than they ever have in their careers,” Johnson said. “Now, you’re going to have to see the other part of the curve come down. You may see them get six, but you may start to see a little of this

"Christian Mracna for example has already thrown as many innings as he did last year. Leighton is the same way. So, you’re managing that, while still trying to push them to that six-inning point as well.”

However, going deeper in games remains one of Finley’s goals.

“I want to go further and finish guys in certain counts,” Finley said. “I need to not go deep in counts, and when I get ahead, just finish guys with better pitches instead of leaving them out there.”

Johnson was scheduled to receive an update on starting pitcher Charlie Goldstein after practice Thursday, although it appears the senior left-hander likely will not be ready for this weekend's series against Ole Miss.

Goldstein (4-0, 4.08) – who has not pitched since going six innings at Tennessee on March 29 – has been dealing with what the school describes as shoulder fatigue.

Baseball old-timers know it by another name.

“The old school guys will call it dead arm,” Johnson said. “But you’ve got to be careful with that because they’ll try to do more to keep their velocity and then they’ll have other arm things that can flare up. We’re trying to make sure that doesn’t happen with Charlie.”

Johnson explained that sometimes a dead arm can lead to other issues if pitchers are not given enough time to recover.

“The biggest thing is you’ve got to give him time. It’s not a mechanical thing, unfortunately, it’s just time and that’s why we had him checked out. Structurally he was fine, everything was fine,” Johnson said. “The challenge is now, he may come out and be lights out for one inning, but you’ve got to get him built back up, so that’s the hard part in these things. He’ll be on a very strict pitch count when he does come back.”

While there’s still some uncertainty regarding Goldstein, the Bulldogs appear to have dodged a major bullet with freshman outfielder Tre Phelps.

Phelps went down in a heap last week against Missouri when his knee popped while taking a swing.

Initially, Johnson feared the worst.

Fortunately, those fears were unfounded.

An MRI revealed Phelps had not torn his ACL after all.

“Tre’s progressing really well. He’s going to be back way sooner than we thought in the game. We got good news and he’s healing pretty fast,” said Johnson, who hedged his answer when asked if a chance Phelps might play this weekend.

“Probably not, but I don’t know,” Johnson said. “I’ll just say he’s moving quick.”

Despite being a true freshman, Phelps has played a major role, hitting .354 in 17 starts with three homers and 17 RBI.

Knowing he’ll be back soon is definitely a relief for Johnson.

“It’s huge. The challenge with the knee is once we even get him to a point where you feel good with it, now he’s got to get back in and swing again and do it with a high level of trust,” Johnson said.

…Johnson was asked about the availability of junior Chandler Marsh (0-0, 6.23), who has not pitched since March 12 against Iowa.

“He’s just working through a lot of things,” said Johnson, without offering specifics.

He could not say if there was a chance the right-hander who appeared in 23 games last season would be available this weekend.

“I don’t know yet,” Johnson said. “He threw out here on Tuesday and was OK.”

… Shortstop Kolby Branch, who took a pitch off the helmet Saturday and had to come out of the game is OK.

Sophomore Kolten Smith gave Georgia’s pitching staff a welcomed boost Saturday against Missouri when he pitched six innings of five-hit relief with 10 strikeouts on Saturday.

Per Johnson, he’s not resting on his laurels.

“He just wants to keep getting better. He hasn’t changed his demeanor,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t surprise me that Kolten had that outing. I think he’s been close. He got stung in a couple of innings where metrically the pitches were fine, just didn’t get it there.”

Johnson’s constant message of positivity he used with Smith and Georgia’s other pitchers apparently paid off.

“I want them to see themselves have success, I want them watching video of themselves executing pitches,” Johnson said. “So, we make sure they get that a lot through Kevin Knight, and our video people are constantly sending them stuff.”

Johnson hopes to see some of his other pitchers start turning the corner, too.

“Zach Harris is getting close,” Johnson said. “There’s a couple of these guys. I want Jarvis Evans to get a whole lot better. The walks (22 in 31. 1 innings) are still really high, but you look at Jarvis, you look at Jarvis, and there are a couple of other guys who are getting close. If we can them where they need to be, it’s going to help.”