Columbia at No. 5 Georgia
WHERE: Foley Field
WHEN: Friday 3 p.m., Saturday 2 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.
RECORDS: Georgia 15-1, Columbia 1-6
STARTING PITCHERS: Friday – LH Charlie Goldstein (0-0, 0.00) vs RH Alex Sotiropoulous (1-1, 16.62); Saturday RH Leighton Finley (1-0, 4.50) vs LH Jagger Edwards (0-1, 5.14); Sunday – TBA vs RH Joe Sheets (0-1, 5.00)
TV/RADIO: ESPN+; Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Jeff Dantzler, David Johnston).
The Series
With a week to go before SEC play starts against Kentucky, Wes Johnson sees this weekend as a chance for his Bulldogs to hit the reset button against visiting Columbia.
After playing six games over six days, the Bulldogs (15-1) just completed one of their busiest stretches of the year. However, there’s work to do.
“I want us to play clean baseball. We're doing it right now at times and in spurts of games for four or five innings, and then we won't play clean, and then we'll come back and play clean,” Johnson said. “But as you guys know, you get in our league play, you're not giving up a nine spot and winning a lot of baseball games. So, we gotta clean that up, and we will; we'll continue to do it. But at the same time, this is what happens at the end of six games and six days.”
There have been rocky moments as far as the pitching staff is concerned.
Leighton Finley, expected to be one of Georgia’s top starters, gave up five runs in the first inning last Friday against Florida Gulf Coast. In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Eagles, Alton Davis II allowed six in the first.
Tuesday’s game against High Point saw Zach Harris charged with only one run, but he failed to get out of the second. Wednesday, relievers Wyatt Land, Paul Farley, and Justin Byrd combined to allow nine runs in the third.
Goldstein, who has yet to allow a run or a hit in four innings, remains on a pitch count. Johnson continues to take it very easy with the left-hander, who is coming off internal brace surgery over the summer.
Finley, who bounced back to toss a scoreless inning of relief against High Point, will start Saturday’s game. Sunday is TBA.
It’s expected that Kolten Smith will ultimately be reinserted back into the rotation. But after tweaking his back before the season-opener against Quinnipiac at UNC-Wilmington, Smith has been slow to respond and has been relegated to short relief stints since the season began.
“Goldstein's still on the count, but those other guys, man, I need them to go three innings or more, that'd be real cool,” Johnson said. “Kolten threw (Tuesday). I'd like to get him back out there and stretch him a little more. But I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that out of the starting role or not yet.”
Fortunately for Georgia and Johnson, the Bulldogs have no shortage of arms. So, while Johnson wants to see whoever he sends out to start giving him some length, at least there are options.
“We've thrown every guy we've had. So yeah, you just get them out there, and you’ve got to believe in them,” he said. “But also, they’ve got to show me that they're going to attack the strike zone. If not, we're going to go to somebody else.”
This and That
…For the year, the Bulldogs are batting .318 with a .581 slugging percentage, a .464 on-base percentage, and they are 23-for-26 in steals. The team’s leading hitters are Ryland Zaborowski (.429-5-21), Ryan Black (.375-4-8), Slate Alford (.356-4-25, 14 BB), Tre Phelps (.344-4-18), and Robbie Burnett (.340-6-18, 15 BB, 8 SB).
Alford, Phelps, and Burnett have reached base safely in all 16 games this season. Phelps has tied his career high with a 10-game hitting streak and had a career-best 4-hit game against the Panthers Wednesday. Earlier this year, Alford had a career-best nine-game hitting streak.
…The Bulldogs have posted a 3.94 ERA with 176 strikeouts and 76 walks in 137 innings. Opponents are batting .222 against Georgia.
…Thirteen different position players have started a game for the Bulldogs with four starting all 16 this season: Alford, Kolby Branch, Nolan McCarthy and Tre Phelps.
…Twenty-one pitchers have seen action and seven have at least one win. The innings leaders are junior Leighton Finley (1-0, 4.50 ERA) with 12 followed by graduate Brian Zeldin (0-0, 6.75 ERA) with 10.2 and redshirt freshman reliever Paul Farley (1-0, 2.70 ERA) with 10. Four Bulldogs have a save: Brian Curley, Matthew Hoskins, DJ Radtke, and Jordan Stephens.
…The Bulldogs began the game against UIC on Feb. 23 with a team cycle. Ryan Black led off with a single; Alford smashed a double; Burnett followed with a two-run game-tying triple; and Daniel Jackson cranked a two-run home run for a 4-2 lead in an eventual 17-3 rout.
…Twice this season, the bullpen has provided 7.2 scoreless innings and allowed just one hit in a game. The first time came in a 6-2 road loss to UNCW on Feb. 16 and then again in a 7-3 road win over Georgia State on Feb. 26.
…Georgia’s four walk-off wins (including one via a run-rule in the seventh) have come on a fielder’s choice/E3, a sacrifice fly, a single, and a home run. Black provided a two-run walk-off home run to cap the series sweep of Florida Gulf Coast. Then, he led off the next game against High Point with a home run.
