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Published Mar 17, 2025
Wes Johnson: "We're going to get back to some basics"
Anthony Dasher  •  UGASports
Editor

Wes Johnson will be there first to tell some of his pitchers that haven’t performed quite as he hoped.

However, Georgia’s skipper is not panicking and this week will start taking some steps to hopefully alleviate some of the concerns.

“Yeah, we’ll break down each guy will have an hour with me, just me and that pitcher over the Tuesday and Wednesday time frame," he said. "We're going to get back to some basics on some things.”

The timing could not be more perfect for Johnson.

Georgia enters this weekend’s series at Florida next to last in the SEC in ERA at 4.95 with a league-worst 109 walks. The Bulldogs have hit 27 batters, but that appears to be a league-wide problem as 11 of the 16 teams have hit at least 21.

There's other work to be done.

The Bulldogs (21-2) gave up 26 runs in their SEC series victory over Kentucky last weekend.

For those who might have forgotten, last year in Lexington, Kentucky scored 37 runs in a three-game sweep of the Bulldogs, who earlier saw Michigan State score 19 in a seven-game run-rule game.

“We’ve still got a lot of things to clean up. We give way too many runs in a day on just some plays we shouldn't have,” Johnson said. “We won’t get into that, but yeah, we'll be ready for the Gators.”

Georgia’s starting pitching has been the biggest concern.

Although he’s healthy, left-hander Charlie Goldstein still continues to build arm strength, while Kolten Smith was slowed by back tightness to start the year followed by an illness that caused him to lose 10 pounds.

Then there’s the case of Leighton Finley, who has been the only Bulldog starter to go at least five innings, which he did three weeks ago against UIC.

Finley only made it through 1.1 innings Sunday after giving up a pair of homers.

“(Finley) just missed spots there. It happens. This game's really hard. We're not robots. I wish it was a video game, but it's not,” Johnson said. “They're still humans, and he just missed a little bit. One of them I didn't think should have gone out of the yard. Whatever, it just happens, and then sometimes you gotta make a change. Sometimes you give a different look.”

NOTES: The Bulldogs are No. 4 in this week's D1Baseball poll and No. 6 in the Baseball America Top 25.

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