Georgia baseball: next arm up with ace pitcher Emerson Hancock out

Injury knocks down Georgia baseball ace pitcher Hancock Emerson, so look for the Diamond Dawgs to keep doing that 2019 thing – next man up.

Georgia baseball Friday night starter Emerson Hancock received SEC pitcher of the week honors on Monday. Wednesday, Georgia baseball head Coach Scott Stricklin announced  Emerson will not pitch this weekend due to minor arm soreness. So it goes with Diamond Dawgs 2019.

“He just needs a little bit of a breather,” Stricklin said on 960 The Ref’s Morning Show. “It’s what’s best for him and our team. Just some soreness. He’s fine.”

Let’s hope so, but “minor soreness” is never a minor issue for a pitcher.

Anytime is a bad time

The news is business as usual for this Georgia baseball team after playing without three starting position players and two front line pitchers the first half of the season. Still, the timing could hardly be worse. The Dawgs begin the last month of SEC play on the road Friday at Mississippi State.

State claims the top batting average in league play at .315 and top total bases. On the mound, State is no slouch, ranking fifth in league play ERA with two pitchers ranking in the SEC’s top five in ERA and in wins in J T Small and Ethan Ginn.

Options

The deep Georgia baseball staff owns the second best ERA in the country, and head coach Scott Stricklin has several pitching options. Look for freshman Cole Wilcox to get the ball on Friday night.

Wilcox, a 6’ 5” flame throwing right-hander, picked up his first win last Friday, pitching four scoreless innings against Missouri. Wilcox fastball touches 100 miles per hour. He was projected as a likely weekend starter when he picked the Dawgs over professional baseball.

After some acclimation, Wilcox has sparkled the for the Dawgs in relief.

UPDATE: Chip Towers of Dawgnation reports Coach Striklin is undecided as of Thursday and expects Tim Elliot, a mid-week starter, to get the start.

Help arrives

Help for the Georgia baseball pitching staff showed up last weekend. Ryan Webb came back from an arm soreness ailment to pitch a scoreless inning against Missouri.

Webb will give the Dawgs a big lift, and whoever takes the mound Friday night pitches in front of one of the nation’s top defenses. What the Georgia pitchers really need, though, is runs. While Georgia’s batters excel at timely hitting, they rank in the middle or bottom of the league in SEC play in all offensive categories.

2019’s hard luck pitcher

Hancock, the Dawgs’ hard luck pitcher, has thrown for a 1.04 earned run average in ten starts but received little bat support as the Friday night horse.

“We just didn’t score enough runs for him.”

“Emerson’s had two losses and a no decision in the league,” head coach Scott Stricklin told the Red and Black. “All those should have been wins for him. We just didn’t score enough runs for him.”

Now, after his first SEC win last week, Hancock is forced to sit.

The Dawgs would be happier with having everyone healthy, but it’s business as usual for the  Diamond Dawg 2019 edition: another man down, another man up.