Georgia opened Coach Wes Johnson’s second season flexing muscle on the mound and new-found speed on the base paths on Friday.

The No. 8-ranked Bulldogs raced into the 2025 season with a 9-1 victory over Quinnipiac, with promising new names and faces across the lineup.

UGA (1-0) will be back in action in the Wilmington, N.C., ball park at 10 a.m. on Saturday against Quinnipiac with a game immediately after host UNC Wilmington. UGA closes the four-game weekend against UNC Wilmington as previously scheduled, at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

The new-look Bulldogs already have tied one school record this season with senior second baseman Robbie Burnett recording four stolen bases after reaching base on a single and drawing three walks.

“We’ve got some guys that can run, and our coaching staff studies a lot, studies pitchers, and we’re going to be put in the best situation to steal as many bags as possible,” said Burnett, a senior transfer from UNC-Asheville, one of the 23 programs players originated from before coming to UGA.

“It adds that extra element on to our game and not just hitting home runs.”

The fact last year’s Georgia baseball team stole only 22 bases all year, with no one getting more than four, tells you how different this year’s Bulldogs look to be.

The goal of reaching the College World Series remains the same, however, and it’s more realistic than any time since 2008 after last year’s team came within one game of earning the coveted trip to Omaha.

Putting did last year’s Georgia team in, bit with Johnson — “The Wizard,” as his players call him — UGA figured to get better fast with this new class of players and Friday served as a prime example.

Returning junior starter Zach Harris was the surprise starter after junior Kolten Smith was a late scratch. Harris went four innings and allowed one run on three hits and three walks, fanning three.

Redshirt freshman right-hander Paul Farley (1-0) — who didn’t see action on last year’s 43-17 UGA tea — came on in relief and pitched five shutout innings to get the win. Farley allowed one hit with two walks and had three strikeouts.

“I’m very proud of those two guys,” Johnson said. “Paul throws strikes, controls the running game, fields his position. He was built up. It’s not shocking to me he was able to do that, and it was big for us.

“Zach found out at 8:10 this morning he was starting. That’s not easy. Zach is a guy who typically likes to prepare, but I also knew he would be up to the challenge.”

Graduate first baseman Ryland Zaborowski — a hulking 6-foot-5, 250-pound transfer from Miami, Ohio, that UGA fans will quickly identify at any game, had a bases-clearing, 3-RBI double for the first hit of the season as the Bulldogs jumped to a 5-0 first-inning lead over the Connecticut private school.

Senior Devin Obee, a graduate from Duke, hit a solo homer in the sixth inning for Georgia’s first home run of the season.