ATHENS – Some things actually have benefited from the pandemic. Food-delivery businesses are thriving, for instance. Amazon and UPS seem to be doing OK. And college baseball, well, it’s supposed to be better than ever this year.
Take the Georgia Bulldogs, for instance.
They were crushed when with the coronavirus derailed their season just when it was getting started in March. Ranked No. 2 in the nation at the time, Georgia literally was on a bus headed to Gainesville, Fla., for a three-game showdown with the No. 1-ranked Florida Gators when they were directed to turn around and return to Athens.
Little did they know then that they wouldn’t play another game.
Eleven months later, the Bulldogs have reconvened at Foley Field. And thanks to some key developments, coach Scott Stricklin finds himself with a pleasantly well-stocked roster. Between a radically reduced major-league draft last summer and the NCAA’s senior eligibility waiver, some might even say Georgia is loaded.
That starts with the return of graduated seniors Riley King, Mason Meadows and Ryan Webb.
“Those are certainly guys we didn’t expect to see back this year,” Stricklin said in a Zoom call Wednesday afternoon. “So, we did benefit from the shortened draft. Obviously, we still lost Emerson Hancock and Cole Wilcox and Tucker Bradley and Cam Shepherd. They were getting old, quite frankly, when you’re talking about pro baseball. They just had to get going.
“But guys like Riley King and C.J. Smith and Ryan Webb, we benefited from that. But so did every other team.”
There’s the rub. Virtually all Division I college teams benefited. Because of MLB’s decision to limit its draft to five rounds and the uncertain situation surrounding minor-league ball, college proved the best option for both draft-eligible high school prospects and college upperclassmen.
For any player not considered a “sure-thing,” college ball represented a better option.
“Fewer and fewer high school kids were drafted, so most of those guys showed up,” Stricklin said. “Overall, I think the talent top to bottom (in college baseball) will be as good as you’ve seen. You’re going to see a lot of teams come in with a lot of older players, fourth- and fifth-year seniors that would have graduated. Now all the sudden they’re coming back to play.”
King’s return is a particular boon for Georgia. It’s rare indeed when a senior captain returns to be a senior captain again.
He also happens to be one of the Bulldogs’ more versatile players. He has started at four positions in his career: right field, left field, third base and second base. And while he struggled some at the plate in last year’s truncated 18-game season (.203), he remains one of Georgia’s best hitters. He has a .275 career batting average with nine doubles, one triple, eight home runs and 55 RBIs.
King most assuredly would have been drafted in a non-pandemic year. As it went, he didn’t consider it for long.
“This place is amazing,” King said. “I’ve always dreamed about being here. The fact that I could be here for another year is a true blessing. I was talking to (catcher) Mason (Meadows) at the time -- because we truly didn’t know what was going to happen -- and we said, ‘Man, there’s a lot of people who would really die to be in the situation we’re in.’ So, I’m super happy to be here.”
Stricklin’s ecstatic, too. In King and junior center fielder Ben Anderson he has the top of his lineup card and two-thirds of his outfield already filled in.
His pitching rotation would’ve been pretty well set, too, if not for some preseason setbacks. Stricklin revealed Wednesday that Webb is recovering from a bout with COVID-19 and likely will miss the Feb. 19 season opener versus Evansville.
“He’s behind a little bit, and we don’t know if he’s going to be ready for that first weekend,” Stricklin said of Webb, who was 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA as a reliever last season. “He’s throwing 95 miles-an-hour and looks normal, but we’ve got to build him back up.’
Webb is one of few pitchers battling illness or injury. Jonathan Cannon, who is slated to be the Bulldogs’ Friday night starter, was diagnosed with mononucleosis last month. A projected first-rounder in 2021, Cannon was named a freshman All-American last year when he posted a 3-0 record, 0.00 ERA in 11-1/3 innings with two walks and 12 strikeouts in five relief appearances. The Bulldogs also lost two potential starters to arm injuries in the fall.
But, again, Georgia is unusually gifted with depth. Fortunately for the Bulldogs, they have senior left-hander C.J. Smith back. He’ll likely start the opener, along with a bunch of other veteran players.
“When you have guys like Mason Meadows and Riley King, that helps a lot,” Smith said. “Not only do we have leaders, but we have guys with experience who have already been through a whole season and everything.”
Stricklin hopes to have rotation intact by about the third week. That’s just about the time things were really cranking up last year.
It will be a long time before the Bulldogs completely get over last year’s season-that-could’ve-been. With Hancock (drafted sixth overall) and Wilcox (third-round pick but rated higher as a prospect) as cornerstone starters, that squad already was projected for Omaha and the College World Series when the season came to a halt. Carrying the mantra of “Unfinished Business” into the season, that business was never finished.
But thanks to the unusual blend of old and new talent now assembled in Athens, this year’s group thinks they can get the job done.
“The new mantra this year is ‘Rise Above,’” King said. “All the things that have happened, all the unknowns we’ve been dealing with, all the negative things, that doesn’t give us an excuse. We’re going out there and playing the game we love. At the end of the day, it’s baseball and we’re going to compete. And, as always, our goal is to win a national championship. I know our whole locker room has that on their mind.
“So I guess you could say it’s kind of ‘Unfinished Business Part II.’”
