Georgia at No. 4 Vanderbilt

WHEN: Friday 5:30 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m.

WHERE: Hawkins Field, Nashville, Tenn.

RECORDS: Georgia 15-10, 1-5; Vanderbilt 20-5, 6-0

STARTING PITCHERS: Friday - LH Jaden Woods (3-1, 3.90) vs. LH Carter Holton (3-0, 2.59); Saturday - LH Liam Sullivan (3-1, 2.57) vs LH Hunter Owen (3-0, 2.78); Sunday - TBA vs LH David Futrell (4-1, 3.55)

TV/RADIO: Friday-Sunday (SEC Network+); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler, David Johnston)

Although there are still eight SEC weekends to go, Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin acknowledged Thursday there needs to be a sense of urgency for his Bulldogs going into this weekend’s series at No. 4 Vanderbilt.

“That’s the message. We’re one good weekend away from, not necessarily where we want to be, but back in better shape. But as the season goes on, the season gets deeper and deeper, it gets tougher to turn things around,” Stricklin said before boarding the team bus on the way to Nashville. “You’ve got 10 weekends. This is Weekend 3; it’s still early, but there needs to be a sense of urgency. There’s always a sense of urgency in this league. We just need to play better. We’re better than what we’ve played; you can say "what if" all you want--we’ve had two tough losses in the league and those are tough to handle. It puts us in a tough spot, but that’s baseball. We just have to regroup and have a good weekend.”

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, there hasn’t been much to smile about.

Georgia enters the weekend against a hot Vanderbilt team (20-5, 6-0) having dropped their opening series against South Carolina and Auburn last week.

The Bulldogs’ bats exploded to rout the Tigers 24-7 in last week’s finale, but the team followed that up with a 12-2 loss Saturday to Georgia Southern at Foley Field.

“Coming off Saturday, it felt better. We had two good days of practice, felt good about last night, we really did. We felt good about Kolten Smith getting the start, but he got off to a bad start and kept going downhill,” Stricklin said. “Certainly, (Wednesday night) was tough. I didn’t think we showed a lot of fight. That was discouraging to see that, but you know what? We’ve got Jaden Woods going on the mound and momentum can shift pretty quickly. So, we’ll go out tomorrow and hopefully get things going. But the bottom line is, you’ve got to show some more fight. We’ll find out tomorrow.”

Some better pitching wouldn’t hurt, either.

The top two starters, Jaden Woods (3-1, 3.90) and Liam Sullivan (3-1, 2.57), have been solid. But after that, it’s been dicey at best. Georgia’s team ERA of 6.06 ranks next-to-last in the SEC, as do the 126 walks. Georgia’s 26 wild pitches are tied for worst in the conference, while its 37 hit batters are tops in the conference.

As the numbers would indicate, confidence, as far as the pitching staff is concerned, is not very high.

“I think a lot of it's confidence. When you go out there, you’re trying to miss bats and you’re walking guys, being too fine, it can get in your head. Guys are lacking some confidence; they need some success,” Stricklin said. “You just need to get some positive things going your way. You’re one game away from turning things around and feeling better about yourself.”

Obviously, the Bulldogs need to get both quality and length from Woods and Sullivan to give the Commodores a go in Nashville.

However, Stricklin disagreed with the suggestion that the struggles of their other mound compatriots put any added pressure on the top two to make that happen.

“I don’t think so. Being a Friday and Saturday guy in this league is a big deal, they know that, and they’ve been in the spotlight now for three years. They’ve pitched in some tough games,” Stricklin said. “They know they will see other teams’ best on Friday and Saturday. It’s a challenge, but I don’t think they put any extra pressure on themselves. They’re competitors. They want to go out there and get things done. I’m anxious to see those guys go out and pitch.”

In the meantime, Stricklin said pitching coach Sean Kenny is doing whatever he can to get the rest of the staff turned around.

“They’ll take their bullpen sessions, they’re challenged to throw their first pitches for strikes. He charts all those things, makes them compete. But yeah, once you get on the mound, the bullpen is a lot different than the game mound,” Stricklin said. “You got to be able to compete. You’ve got to be able to shut everything else out, focus on the catcher, and focus on the hitter. He’s (Kenny) certainly spent a lot of time with these guys, they have a lot of meetings, and they work in the bullpen, but at some point, you’ve got to go out there and get it done. So, that’s what we’re hoping to see, some guys go out there and have good outings, get confidence, and build some momentum.”

The Bulldogs will be without two pitchers who thus far have played key roles for this weekend’s series at Vanderbilt: freshman Kolten Smith and senior transfer Kyler Greenler.

Smith (1-1, 5.54), who started Wednesday against Georgia Southern and gave up two first-inning runs, suffers from biceps tendinitis, while Greenler is dealing with a forearm strain.

Greenler (1-1, 3.46) started the ninth Wednesday night against Georgia Southern before coming out of the game,

“For right now, Kolten didn’t look right. He has a little tendinitis that we just learned about last night. He’s not going to pitch this weekend,” Stricklin said. “There’s nothing structurally, there’s just a little bit of biceps tendinitis, so we’re going to shut him down this weekend.”

Greenler will be re-evaluated on Monday.

“We’re going to let it calm down over the weekend,” Stricklin said. ‘It’s a forearm strain, but we don’t think it’s any more than that.”

Pregame notes