ATHENS, Ga. — The Georgia baseball team opens its 136th season on Friday at 3 p.m. at Foley Field against Jacksonville State in the first of a three-game series.
Game two of the series will be Saturday at 2 p.m. with Sunday’s action starting at 1 p.m.
Play Ball: Baseball is the oldest sport on campus, dating back to 1886. Georgia did not field a team in 1944 or 1945 due to World War. Georgia’s overall record is 2,387-1828-24. Georgia’s Ike Cousins head baseball coach Scott Stricklin begins his 19th season directing a program including his 10th with the Bulldogs. His overall record is 620-397-1 and 270-209-1 at UGA. In season openers at UGA, he is 6-3. Georgia won eight in a row to start 2022.
Roster Roundup: The Bulldogs return six starters around the diamond, 12 pitchers who saw action last year plus welcome 18 newcomers. There are six graduates including 24-year-old outfielders Ben Anderson and preseason second team All-SEC Connor Tate, both in their sixth campaign due to a redshirt season and a COVID-year. Anderson was the 2022 SEC Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. A few more veterans back are juniors Corey Collins, Fernando Gonzalez and Parks Harber.
Georgia has two graduate transfer pitchers: Kyle Greenler (Elon), Dalton Rhadans (Wofford); two graduate transfer infielders: Will David (Samford) and Mason LaPlante (Yale) plus two Division 1 transfers in pitcher Zach DeVito (Tulane) and infielder Sebastian Murillo (Long Beach State).
The youngsters usually in the lineup will be sophomore Cole Wagner and redshirt freshman Charlie Condon as they will see action at either first base, right field or designated hitter.
No Preseason Love: The Bulldogs are not ranked in any preseason top 25 polls. They are picked to finish fifth in the East, according to a preseason poll of SEC coaches who voted Tennessee and LSU as the projected champions with the Tigers winning the league. In the East, the coaches predicted order was UT, UF, VU, USC, Georgia, UK and Mizzou. Ten teams on this year’s slate advanced to the NCAAs in 2022.
Rotation & Bullpen: The rotation for the opening series will be junior LHP Jaden Woods, junior LHP Liam Sullivan and freshman RHP Blake Gillespie. Woods moves from his fireman role to the rotation with a solid three-pitch mix while Sullivan was a mainstay last year. Woods is the team’s highest rated prospect for the 2023 MLB Draft according to Baseball America who ranked the top 200. Woods came in at No. 89 while junior C/OF Corey Collins was No. 188. Gillespie earned the job and will be the first freshman in the opening series rotation since Woods and Luke Wagner in 2021.
Veterans Nolan Crisp, Charlie Goldstein, Will Pearson, Collin Caldwell and Chandler Marsh and freshmen Leighton Finley, Kolten Smith and LHP Jarvis Evans are likely among the first ones up for action in the middle innings while the transfer pitchers are likely to be involved later in games. Freshman RHP/OF Matthew Hoskins will be in the mix when healthy as an illness will sideline him for the JSU series.
Probable Rotation For UGA-JSU Series (’22 Final Stats)
#17 Jaden Woods (1-1, 4.80, 3 SV, LHP, Jr.) vs. #12 AJ Causey (4-4, 2.61, 9 SV, RHP, So.)
#14 Liam Sullivan (4-3, 4.62, LHP, Jr.) vs. #7 Tanner Jones (2-4, 5.33, 1 SV, RHP, So.)
# 20 Blake Gillespie (n/a, RHP, Fr.) vs. #22 Eli Zielinski (n/a, LHP, Fr.)
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