Once Gamecocks broke through UNCW ace, they feasted on bullpen

One could forgive South Carolina baseball coach Chad Holbrook if he’d been nervous three innings into Tuesday’s NCAA Regional Final showdown at Founders Park.

His Gamecocks had roared back from an opening-game loss, but UNC-Wilmington starter Ryan Foster sat down the first nine USC hitters he faced, needing only 32 pitches to do it.

“I thought we were facing Blake Cooper,” said Holbrook, referring to the former Gamecocks All-American. “That’s what it felt like. I was like, ‘This guy’s good.’

“We might not be sitting up here as a winner if we had to face him fresh. I thought he was something.”

The Seahawk pitching staff was a little like a crab. Foster was the hard shell on top, but past him it was plenty soft with almost no arms that could scare you.

Gene Cone got the first crack with a single, the Gamecocks lineup locked in the second time through and a pair of UNCW miscues in the field split it wide open. After three perfect innings, Foster managed to sit down only one more batter before leaving the game.

Three of the four relievers that came in had ERAs of 4.15 or higher coming into the day. The group combined to give up five runs.

“Once we got past him, a great arm, every time you get into the bullpen, it takes a little bit away from the other team, the momentum that they have,” South Carolina designated hitter Alex Destino said. “Once we got into the bullpen, we continued to do work.”

The Gamecocks coaches and players lavished praise on Foster for the guts he showed and how he played. He’s already decided he won’t pitch professionally, so Tuesday was the final pitch of his high-level baseball career.

The crowd swells

To call the mass of fans that filled Founders Park unexpected wouldn’t be giving them enough credit. More than 6,800 had piled in Friday night, but early games, the early loss and weather concerns served to dampen attendance through the weekend.

With a 2 p.m. game on a Tuesday, it seemed logical fewer people could escape work to catch a game.

Instead 7,004 filled the park, with lines 30 deep at the walk-up window at points. They were loud throughout, so energetic Holbrook had to marvel at what they brought.

“I think we have some nice bosses that live in Columbia that allowed them to come out,” Holbrook said. “The fans were incredible, incredible.

“They can make it hard on opponents and they sure did this weekend.”

Just getting through

The Gamecocks pitching staff showed it was all in on Tuesday, throwing ace Clarke Schmidt for 19 pitches on short rest and having No. 2 Braden Webb close things out on shorter rest.

Holbrook said he wanted power to finish off the game, and while Webb only threw 10 pitches after an abbreviated start Saturday, those two pitching makes the plan for the weekend against Oklahoma State unclear.

“It’s not going to be an easy turnaround,” Holbrook said. “We’ll just see. We’ll just take it one day at a time. It might not be the conventional order that we go on Saturday, Sunday, Monday.

“We don’t know. We’re in a pickle. We’re in a bind a little bit. It took a lot out of us. I’m going to take it easy on them as best I can.”

Lay one down

The Gamecocks’ bunting and small-ball approach has been a topic of conversation for a while, but against UNCW, it worked to perfection.

South Carolina laid down two bunts in a five-run fourth inning, one from Jonah Bride to move runners to second and third before a two-run single, and one on a squeeze play that saw Hunter Taylor drive in a run.

Bride laid down another bunt in the sixth inning, and the pitcher couldn’t handle it. The single pushed Destino to third, and he scored on a Madison Stokes single a pitch later.

Wife at work

Jennifer Holbrook, wife of Gamecocks coach Chad Holbrook, did her part to get fans in the stands before Tuesday’s game.

On Twitter, she offered to collect tickets that couldn’t be used by season ticket holders because of the early start time, with the plan of handing them out to people walking up outside the stadium.

She told a few fans online where she was and how she was dressed.

Future Mountaineer?

A tweet from Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com named South Carolina assistant Sammy Esposito as a possible option for the vacant Appalachian State job. The Mountaineers parted ways with Billy Jones after four seasons.

This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 11:27 PM with the headline "Once Gamecocks broke through UNCW ace, they feasted on bullpen."