Inexperienced Georgia baseball team seeks to make statement in SEC

ATHENS -- Georgia outfielder and catcher Skyler Weber has a bold prediction for a team that finished last in the SEC East last year and was voted to finish sixth in the coaches poll.

"If SEC tournament was tomorrow, I would most certainly say we'd be in that," Weber said.

That may even be even more bold consider that Georgia is looking at a very different team in the 2016 season than it had a year ago.

The two catchers who combined to start every game for the Bulldogs last season, Brandon Stephens and Zack Bowers, are both gone. Utility man Jared Walsh, who had the third-best batting average on the team, is gone, too.

The rotation was hit even harder, losing weekend starters David Sosebee and Ryan Lawlor to the Major League Baseball draft, and swing man Sean McLaughlin, as well.

To say that Georgia is inexperienced is an understatement.

"We're going to have four freshmen in the starting lineup on Friday," Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin said. "It's going to be exciting to see some new faces out there, but we're going to have a young lineup out there. The guys have worked hard."

Those four freshmen will be either first basemen Patrick Sullivan or Adam Sasser, who will split time during the weekend at first, as well as second baseman L.J. Talley, catcher Michael Curry and outfielder Logan Moody.

L.J. Talley may be the most surprising of the group, taking over second base from incumbent starter Mike Bell. Bell started the season hot last year, but fizzled to a .240 batting average, lowest on the team for anyone with at least 25 starts. Talley impressed in his senior season of high school at Charlton County, batting .435 with 12 home runs.

The most important of the new faces, however, might be catcher Michael Curry. Curry showed his ability to handle a bat during his time at Gainesville, where he hit .412 with 15 home runs in his senior season. Replacing veterans behind the plate and handling a relatively inexperienced pitching staff might be his biggest challenge.

"I think he has really big shoes to feel and I feel like he's really mature, so far," outfielder Skyler Weber said. "I'm really excited to see him out have an All-American year."

Moody is a bit of a surprise addition to the group of freshmen starters. Moody will start in center field after preseason All-America outfielder Stephen Wrenn went down with an injury in the team's last inter-squad game on Feb. 12. Stricklin said that the team expects Wrenn will be ready to go by the second weekend of the season. But, Moody will see his fair share of time as a utility outfielder, pinch hitter and pinch runner.

"It's significant; you lose a preseason All-American, you lose your leading hitter and arguably your best player," Stricklin said. "Logan was going into the weekend as kind of a utility guy that can play all three outfield positions and pinch hit and pinch run, but he's been pressed into service and he's going to be ready to go."

Wrenn's injury could've been worse, and Georgia is generally healthy. Weber will split time behind the plate with Curry once he's healthy, and will be limited to right field duty with a pinky injury for a while. Shortstop Nick King has come back faster than expected from a broken leg he suffered in the fall. King, who is known for his defensive prowess, will be a much-appreciated addition to the pitchers he'll be working behind.

"I'm feeling great, I'm feeling ready to go," King said. "Everyone's asking me what percent I'm at and whatever. It doesn't really matter, I'm going to play."

In the rotation, the changes haven't necessarily resembled those in the lineup, although they're just as numerous. There are still some name stays within the pitching staff, namely Baseball America preseason All-American Robert Tyler and closer Bo Tucker.

Instead of freshmen, however, Georgia's staff will be filled out with junior Connor Jones and fifth-year senior Heath Holder, who missed last year with an injury. Freshman lefty Kevin Smith rounds out the rotation and will get some starts during the week.

Jones drew praise from Stricklin as potentially the best pitcher on the team.

"Connor Jones, you could argue that he's our most talented guy," Stricklin said. "He's left-handed, he's 92, 93 (miles an hour) with a really good breaking ball and it's going to be fun to watch Connor go because he's been very good all fall long and all the inter-squads that we've had leading up to this, he's been really good."

Holder is also a valuable addition to such a young team. His experience automatically adds an element that would be otherwise missing, especially with the departures.

"You could argue that he's our most competitive guy," Stricklin said. "He's got more experience than anybody else and he wants to win and he wants to battle and compete. I feel good about the guys and the talent level that we have on the mound. I feel good about the makeup and we've got some guys out of the bullpen that we feel like can close some games out."

For all of these guys, there will be an adjustment period, especially for the freshmen. As Weber put it, the biggest adjustment will be adjusting to failure, and that will be the biggest test for this team going forward.

"You have to adapt to situations, you have to adapt to failure, because there's a lot more failure at this level, so you've got to adapt to that," Weber said. "You've just got to be. You naturally learn to be comfortable failing, and that's what brings success.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Inexperienced Georgia baseball team seeks to make statement in SEC."