Young Pitching Will Be Key for Georgia Baseball in 2023

Georgia baseball coach Scott Stricklin will be turning to some new faces to eat up innings this spring.

Georgia baseball will face one of the more imposing schedules in college baseball this year. The Bulldogs will face South Carolina, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Missouri, and LSU in conference play. LSU, Tennessee, and Ole Miss are all ranked among the top-four teams in the country.

With a schedule that tough, and with 56 games on deck, load management has to come into play. So how will head coach Scott Stricklin and his staff manage playing time, especially after losing so many key players throughout the season last year? Young pitching seems to be at the top of the list.

“We’ve talked about different things. We’ve got five freshmen arms that we really like. I think all five of those guys have a chance to be high draft picks, when it comes their time to be drafted.” said Stricklin.

Georgia baseball pitching coach Sean Kenny

Jarvis Evans, Blake Gillespie, Kolten Smith, Matthew Hoskins, and Leighton Finley could all see the mound this year, but with freshmen pitching there comes a balancing act.

“Do you go out there and start them in week one and just leave them out there, or do you taper what they’re doing innings-wise? That’s the kind of approach we’re going to take. We feel like we’ve got enough depth that we don’t have to pour the innings on these freshmen early on. They’re all going to pitch, they’re all going to get opportunities, and the goal is for all of them to be really healthy in late May, going into June, and I think we have the depth to be able to spread that out.” said Stricklin.

“A lot of these guys come in with a lot of mileage on them; they pitched a lot in high school, they pitched a lot in summer ball. You have to be really careful with that.”

As Georgia baseball prepares for another run at the postseason, a team that has a lot of talent returning will be looking to a group of freshmen to step up.

“It’s a long year; fifty-six games. It’s the longest spring they're ever going to have. We’ve got a lot of great guys, we just have to manage them and keep them healthy throughout the year.”

Full 2023 Georgia Baseball Preview.

Georgia begins their season on February 17th at home against Jacksonville State.

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You can follow Christian Goeckel on Twitter for more Georgia Baseball News: @GoeckelSports