Georgia baseball’s offense is rolling but pitching is trying to sharpen

Georgia has also scored the fifth-most runs in the country at 146, a total that could skyrocket against Columbia’s shaky pitching. The Lions (1-6) have allowed 92 runs in seven games this season, including a 35-1 loss to No. 10 Oregon last weekend.

The Bulldogs bats exploded again on Wednesday to beat Georgia State 16-10 and sweep the home-and-home against the Panthers. UGA overpowered High Point the night before in an 8-4 win.

Georgia has hit seven home runs already this week, bringing its season total to 34, good for the second-most in the country behind No. 2 Tennessee.

Bulldogs fans would love to see the bats keep rolling through the Columbia series and into the first week of SEC action. Georgia will certainly see much more competitive pitching when Kentucky’s top starter faces the Bulldogs on March 14.

The home crowd at Foley Field would love to see some changes from the pitching staff, though. Starting pitchers have scuffled through much of Georgia’s schedule.

Many of Georgia’s starters have really been openers, pitchers who start a game but are only expected to go for a couple of innings. But even the Bulldogs’ openers have largely underwhelmed, leaving the bullpen with an early deficit to manage for the rest of the game.

UGA has allowed 59 earned runs this season. The starters are responsible for 34 of them.

Charlie Goldstein will try to set a different tone for starting pitching when he takes the mound on Friday. Georgia’s longest-tenured player is working back from an injury sustained last season and wants to make long weekend starts again in SEC play.

Goldstein has been Georgia’s top starter multiple times in his career but has been limited by several injuries.

Johnson plans to pitch his only healthy true weekend starter, Leighton Finley, on Saturday. The junior left-hander had allowed one earned run in his first two starts before giving up five in the first inning last Friday.

Finley will try to give most of the bullpen a night off after Johnson threw out 18 pitchers between Tuesday and Wednesday night.

The Bulldogs’ pitching has been largely by committee this season, especially while potential weekend starters Goldstein, Kolten Smith and JT Quinn recover from injury.

Georgia can likely beat Columbia with its high-powered offense, much like it has won many of its games this season.

Perhaps the pitching will calm down as the schedule does, as a high volume of games inevitably taxes a bullpen. But a strong output this weekend would be an encouraging sign for things to come as the mighty SEC approaches.