Saying that Rich Poythress is in the zone may be a severe understatement.

Only four games into the season, the junior first baseman has slugged three long home runs, two to right field, and driven in 10 RBIs. He has filled in admirably for the loss of Gordon Beckham, whose name is plastered on the Georgia offensive record book.

But Poythress is quick to dole out credit to his teammates for his offensive success.

“It’s nice but it just says how many guys have been on base,” he said. “The top of the order has been amazing, whether is [Johnathan Taylor] or [Zach] Cone leading off and then the two and three holes, it just seems like two guys are on base whenever I hit so it’s definitely been nice.”

And it doesn’t hurt to have the tandem of Bryce Massanari and Joey Lewis protecting Poythress in the order.

“Mass, Lewis and I were talking about it the other day,” he said. “With just how many runners have been on base, it’s going to be hard to take the bat out of any of our hands with that many guys on base.”

Illness knocks out Taylor

After finishing last weekend with an absurd .867 on base percentage, it seemed that there was nothing that could keep the freshman leadoff man extraordinaire Taylor off the base paths.

Until today.

Georgia head coach David Perno sent him home today with a case of bronchitis and said he may not play tomorrow if he’s not up to par.

“I think rest did him good [today] and with the bronchitis, he may not go again tomorrow.”

New lineup, same old results

Having two new faces in the one and two holes in the lineup in freshmen Cone and Peter Verdin didn’t slow down the Georgia offense.

Cone scored twice, had three hits and nearly had the first inside-the-park home run for the Diamond Dogs since 2006 when Bobby Felmy turned the trick against Arkansas.

Verdin also scored twice from the two-hole and was on base twice in three at bats.

“Zach filled in valiantly and Peter did a nice job,” Perno said. “Both of those guys scored twice and when you get that kind of production from the top and with what we are capable of three through six from a power standpoint, we can be scary.”

Don’t walk this way

Freshman southpaw Chase Hawkins made his collegiate debut Tuesday and pitched three scoreless innings, allowing only four hits and did not walk a single opposing batter.

In fact, after four games, the Georgia staff as only walked three men and is a trend the team would like to see continue.

“It just gives the staff a lot of confidence,” Hawkins said. “We laugh about it when the coaches are like ‘I don’t care if the other team is blind, if we are throwing strikes we’ll beat anybody.’ We’ll joke about it, but that’s our mentality and we’re going to keep at it.”

Perno said the key to the pitching staff’s success is due to making opponents earn their way on base.

“The key to our staff is that they keep finding the strike zone and keep commanding the count and they are going to keep having success.”