Cannon pitches gem, Georgia defeats Akron 1-0

Georgia pitcher Jonathan Cannon (12) during a game against Akron at Foley Field in Athens, Ga., on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (Photo by Tony Walsh)

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia’s Jonathan Cannon pitched arguably the best game of his career on Friday night.

The right-hander had a perfect game going into the top of the seventh inning until Akron’s Cameron Benson had a one-out single to left field. However, Cannon responded by getting the next two outs to finish off the top half of the inning on a positive note.

In the No. 15 Bulldogs’ 1-0 win over the Zips, Cannon pitched 8.1 innings while limiting them to just three hits and zero runs. He also had five strikeouts and zero walks.

Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin was proud of how his ace pitcher performed against Akron.

"That's as good as I've seen him," Stricklin said. "I thought Akron did a really good job. They had some good at-bats off of him, but we played great defense behind him. Bottom line, Jonathan was really good, the defense was really good, and that's what we want.”

Cannon acknowledged that the defense behind him helped contribute to the win.

“I let my defense work tonight, they played an unbelievable game behind me,” Cannon said. “That’s just what I do. I am going to throw a lot of pitches [where batters] will hit a lot of weak ground balls and pop-ups. Those types of things let the defense do their thing.”