Patience, pitching pay off in South Carolina’s first win of 2018 season

After a disappointing loss to VMI to open the season on Friday, South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston said his team played well but needed two things to win moving forward — patience at the plate, especially with two strikes, and better starting pitching.

On Saturday afternoon, the Gamecocks (1-1) got both, and sure enough, they came away with their first win of the year, topping the Keydets (1-1) 7-2 at Founders Park.

Leading the charge at the plate, senior third baseman Jonah Bride got things started quickly in the bottom of the first. After the first three hitters in South Carolina’s lineup combined for two walks and a single, loading the bases in the first inning on two walks and single, Bride slapped a ground ball into left field, scoring two. USC finished the inning with a 3-0 lead.

In two games, South Carolina has scored seven first-inning runs. However, unlike Friday, USC’s offense continued to pound away for the rest of the game.

Senior shortstop Madison Stokes padded the lead in the third inning with a blast to the left-field bleachers on a 3-2 count. Senior catcher Hunter Taylor followed that up in the fourth inning with a shot to left-center field that cleared the 380-foot marker with ease, also on a 3-2 count, before Stokes one-upped him in the fifth by clobbering a ball over the left-field bullpen and all the way out of the stadium.

“That was an emphasis coming into today, that we needed to do a better job of battling with two strikes,” Kingston said. “Guys made more a commitment today to shorten their swings.”

Stokes is now 4-7 on the season with three walks, two doubles and two home runs. Saturday marked the first multi-home run game of his career.

“Really it’s just watching film on my swing every day,” Stokes said of his improved power numbers. “I’ll watch film on my phone of my swing just every single day just to tweak stuff here and there and continue to get better. We talk about just getting a good pitch to hit and driving it.

“ ... So I was just looking for a great pitch to drive and that first homer happened, and I told myself if that worked, if I get a great pitch, I’m just going to put a good swing on it and do it again, so I didn’t try to hit another home run, it just happened, and yes, it was the farthest ball I’ve ever hit.”

Taylor went 2-4 at the plate Saturday, and through two games, Kingston said he has been extremely impressed with the senior’s play.

“He’s a great baseball player. I think he needed confidence,” Kingston said. “He's gotten himself in tremendous shape. He's a fast-twitch athlete right now which maybe you couldn't say that about him last year. But he's taking good swings, he's catching his butt off behind the plate.”

On the mound, sophomore right-hander Cody Morris came out flinging fastball after fastball early on, hitting 97 miles per hour on several pitches. That translated to six strikeouts over three no-hit innings to start the game. And while his high pitch count limited him to 5 2/3 innings, he gave up just two runs on two hits total, a welcome change for USC fans after staff ace Adam Hill struggled on Friday.

“I was pretty amped up in the first,” Morris said. “That’s kind of why I was up in the zone a lot. But then I settled down pretty well and just battled out there. I didn’t have my best stuff, I don’t think, but that’s just what I like to do, is battle.”

In relief of Morris, freshman Logan Chapman got his first collegiate action, going 1 2/3 innings and giving up three hits and two walks. However, he did not allow any runs, and sophomore Sawyer Bridges came on in the eighth inning to strand two runners Chapman left on base. Bridges then pitched a perfect ninth inning to seal the win, and Kingston praised the righty’s performance.

“Of all the guys we threw today, he had the best location,” Kingston said. “And when you do that with good stuff, you get outs, and you get quick outs. His 1 2/3 innings were the easiest of the game because he located his pitches and he got quick outs. That’s exactly what we’re looking for

South Carolina and VMI face off in a rubber match Sunday afternoon at Founders Park. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m, and transfer Ridge Chapman will toe the rubber for the Gamecocks.

This story was originally published February 17, 2018 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Patience, pitching pay off in South Carolina’s first win of 2018 season."