Statistically, are the odds of finding a block different when mining with a pool?
No, odds are the same; at current difficulty and 20gh/s mean time to generate one block is 1514.9 days.
I understand going solo that months could pass with nothing, or maybe nothing his ever, but to even hit 1 block in a year has so much upside potential.
Yes, but difficulty rises quickly, so in 6 months the odds of ever finding the block with 20gh/s will be much closer to 0.