Georgia baseball ace Jonathan Cannon’s injury might be the most painful addition yet to the team’s laundry list of sidelined pitchers.

Cannon, Georgia’s only starter with a sub-2.00 ERA, strained a muscle in his right forearm and is expected to be out at least a week.

“Awful news, it was a little gloomy [Wednesday] as we were waiting to get the news back because your mind always goes to a negative spot,” UGA coach Scott Stricklin said yesterday on The Morning Show on 960 The Ref. “You go there, and we got the call last night that was good news as far as that goes that it wasn’t anything bad or anything we have to do anything with, now it’s just kind of resting it and getting him back.”

Cannon sustained the injury during his bullpen warm-up routine Tuesday. The nationally renowned righthander will be replaced by Nolan Crisp when No. 14-ranked Georgia plays South Carolina at 7 p.m. Friday night at Founders Park in Columbia, S.C.

Georgia is 6-1 with Cannon on the mound and 3-0 in SEC play. Cannon allowed three hits in eight innings in a shutout of reigning national champion Mississippi State. He also pitched six shutout frames in a 6-1 win over Florida last weekend.

His early dominance has placed him among the SEC’s top pitchers. Cannon leads the conference in walks per nine innings (.57), is second in WHIP (.68) and fifth in ERA (1.71).

The No. 1 starter was also included on USA Baseball’s Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watchlist this week, given to the top amateur player in the country.

Cannon is Georgia’s fourth starting pitcher to suffer injury this season. No. 3 starter Dylan Ross and No. 4 starter Will Childers will miss the season recovering from elbow surgeries. No. 2 starter Liam Sullivan will pitch Sunday in his first outing since March 13.

Sullivan’s return does soften the blow of losing Cannon to some degree. The sophomore holds a 3.68 ERA through four starts. He dealt five scoreless innings against Lipscomb in his last start.

“[Sullivan] feels good, his body language is better, what’s coming out of his mouth is better,” Stricklin said Wednesday. “When it was early on, it wasn’t real positive. The best you’d get was, ‘I feel okay.’ Now he says it feels great.”

Corey Collins (hand) and Garrett Blaylock (shoulder), who combine for eight of Georgia’s 33 home runs, are both questionable to play this weekend.

“I said it to the team yesterday,” Stricklin said on The Morning Show on 960 The Ref. “I said I looked at the box scores from Florida and two out of those three games, Jonathan Cannon didn’t pitch and we won those two games.

“This group has gone through an unbelievable amount when it comes to injuries and adversity and it’s a tough group. ... We’ve just got to band together and figure out a way to win this series on the road.”