Bulldogs Baseball Preview: On the Mound

Georgia Baseball season is just around the corner, getting underway this Friday at Foley Field as the Diamond Dawgs take on Albany (2:00 p.m. ET). If you are thinking about giving Georgia Baseball a try, I encourage you to do so. If you’ve already decided that it’s worth a shot, then you’re in the right place as over the next three days, DawgsHQ will preview the three aspects of baseball: on the mound, in the field and at the plate. Today we discuss the Georgia pitchers.

Jonathan Cannon

A conversation about the Georgia pitching staff is likely to start with Alpharetta, Ga. native Jonathan Cannon, one of two UGA players selected to the Preseason All-SEC team by the league’s 14 coaches. Cannon, also chosen as a Preseason All-American according to D1Baseball.com, returns to Athens for his third season with the program. After earning opportunities out of the bullpen as a freshman during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the 6-foot-6 righty was expected to be the Bulldogs’ ace and likely off to the MLB as one of the top prospects in the country as a draft-eligible sophomore. However, things didn’t go according to plan.

He came down with mononucleosis at the start of the 2021 season on top of COVID-19 and was on a pitch count in his first four outings. While limited early on, he threw a team-high 63.1 innings by the end of the season, going 4-2 with a 3.98 ERA in 13 appearances. Georgia beat top-15 teams in three of those starts, including a win over No. 1 Vanderbilt to clinch the series on the road. Cannon threw 7.0 innings of scoreless ball, allowing just five hits while striking out nine Commodores on his way to earning National and SEC Pitcher of the Week honors.

“Obviously I was sick at the beginning of the year. It was a little bit out of my control,” Cannon said during his explanation on why he decided to return. “I was able to build back, but wasn’t at my best in the beginning. I hit my stride towards the end of the year, was able to go to the Cape (Cod Summer League) and continue to develop. That was my goal all along, to find where the best place for me to develop as a baseball player was. It came to be draft time, I set a very high price for myself because I have valued my time here at Georgia and I’ll be about a semester away from graduating at the end of this spring. That was really what all went into it, and I feel like that was the best decision I could have made. I’m very happy with my decision and the development that I’ve made since last spring is unbelievable and it wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t able to stay.”

Cannon said that he’s been able to put on some weight this offseason, as opposed to the weight loss he experienced at the start of last season, and he has more confidence in his repertoire of pitches. He will serve as the Bulldogs’ Friday night starter.

“You can’t teach experience, and Jonathan Cannon has been there,” Georgia coach Scott Stricklin said. “That 2020 shutdown season, he was one of our go to guys out of the bullpen. Last year, started the season with some illness that he had to fight through, but he came on really strong for us. And he’s made a jump. He’s better than he was last year, and he was really good last year. We’re excited to be able to have a guy like him on Friday night that’s already been there, that’s seen it. He’s not going to back down. He’s not going to be intimidated.”

Jaden Woods

Georgia’s other Preseason All-SEC selection, sophomore Jaden Woods, will be coming out of the bullpen. At least that’s the plan for now. Stricklin called Woods the closer for the Bulldogs, however with starting experience in his back pocket, he can be a Swiss army knife of sorts.

“He’s done a really good job. He’s worked really hard on it,” pitching coach Sean Kenny said about Woods’ unconventional split-finger breaking ball that he added to his arsenal during the fall. “He’s got confidence in it now, and he needs it. If he can be a two, three-pitch mix guy, he’s as good as anybody.”

Woods threw 53 innings last season as a true freshman, posting a 4-1 mark with one save and a 4.58 ERA in 17 appearances. He started four games at the beginning of the season before settling into a role out of the bullpen. All five of his decisions came in SEC play with signature moments along the way like getting the final out in his first career save against Kentucky before coming back to throw 2.1 scoreless innings with four strikeouts the next day, picking up his first career win to avoid a sweep at Texas A&M with four innings pitched or providing four scoreless innings with three strikeouts at Arkansas over the top-ranked Razorbacks. Woods registered five strikeouts in three different relief outings including an SEC Tournament win over LSU. He was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team by the league’s coaches and a Second-Team Freshman All-American by Perfect Game and Rawlings.

Dylan Ross

Dylan Ross is a newcomer to Georgia by way of Northwest Florida State College, so he hasn’t earned any SEC accolades quite yet, but they could be on the way. Ross started his college career at Eastern Kentucky in 2020 before transferring to Northwest Florida State. He made 12 starts for the Raiders, going 6-2 with a 3.88 ERA and 77 strikeouts to 28 walks in 60.1 innings. He participated in the 2021 MLB Draft Combine and was projected as a top three round pick, ranked as high as No. 114 on Baseball America’s Top 500 prospects, but ultimately Georgia was able to win him over and will get the help of him in 2022.

“It’s explosive stuff. I compare him to Tony Locey. It’s a big, strong, physical right handed pitcher that’s going to throw an explosive fastball in the mid-to-upper 90s and really good off-speed stuff to go along with it,” Stricklin said. “He’s very hard to hit. He’s physically imposing at 6-foot-5, 240 pounds. You just don’t see many kids as physical and as gifted and as talented as he is in College Baseball. He’s that good. We’re excited that he’s going to pitch Sundays for us because that’s a really good way to end the weekend.”

Liam Sullivan and Others

Meanwhile, Liam Sullivan will start Saturdays for the Bulldogs, trying to build on the success he saw late in his freshman season as he moved into the rotation in May by making four starts, all against top-10 teams. Sullivan shut down No. 1 Arkansas in his debut as a starter with six innings, allowing just one run, and a career-high 11 strikeouts. Stricklin also named the likes of Jack Gowen, Nolan Crisp, Will Pearson, Collin Caldwell, Michael Polk and Luke Wagner as guys that made contributors last season and are expected to do so again out of the bullpen. Throw in Mississippi State transfer Davis Rokose and freshmen Coleman Willis, Chandler Marsh and Jake Poindexter, along with Will Childers and Garrett Brown who both missed last season due to injury, and it’s a challenge to get everybody the experience that they need. That doesn’t even mention guys like Charlie Goldstein and Hank Bearden, two potential mid-week starters.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that need to get out there on the field and pitch … I just named about 14 guys,” Stricklin said. “A lot of talent and a lot of really good arms. It’s a good problem to have, but a challenge to get everybody the innings, especially to develop those young guys.”

Overall Approach

Overall, this if this pitching staff is going to be characterized by one thing, it’s the depth. From top to bottom, the options are both experienced and talented.

“It’s just a mix of everything. You have three starting pitchers that don’t throw the same,” Cannon said of the group. “Liam’s obviously a big lefty. Ross is a very powerful right hander and I consider myself a power right hander as well, but the way we pitch is completely different. Teams are going to see something new every single day.”

“We’re going to be relentless,” Cannon continued. “When you look at Friday to Sunday, and even Tuesday too, we’re going to keep throwing guy after guy after guy at you. There’s going to be no breaks and no opportunities for teams to feel comfortable in the box against any of us. I think that’s going to be the identity of this pitching staff.”

Kenny agreed, saying that the Georgia pitchers, both starters and relievers, should have a better understanding of what it takes to succeed when they step foot on the mound in the competitive SEC.

“They know what to expect,” Kenny said. “Myself included, there’s no way to prepare you for an SEC season. You think you’ve coached for 20 years in that and that constitutes experience, but there’s nothing like this league. There’s no way to coach it until you’ve seen it. I think that’s what they understand now the most, the magnitude of every game and how hard it is physically and mentally on you from start to finish. Thirty games feels like years. So I think, I hope, that will be biggest difference.”

Georgia and Albany set set for a three-game series this weekend with first pitch on Friday coming at 2:00 p.m. ET. Saturday’s game is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET with the Sunday finale at 1:00 p.m. ET. All three games can be seen on SEC Network+.