USC’s freshman pitchers prove ready for big stage

South Carolina freshmen Braden Webb and Adam Hill got their first taste of a postseason-type environment against the top team in the country this weekend – and matched Florida stud pitchers A.J. Puk and Alex Faedo pitch for pitch.

Sunday’s game was cancelled after four innings because of severe weather, but the two combined to hold the Gators to one run in 11 1/3 innings over Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

The performances by Webb and Hill bode well for the Gamecocks moving forward as USC competes for an SEC title over the next few weeks and eventually tries to advance in the NCAA Tournament.

“Two of the guys hadn’t pitched in this environment before against a team like that with the national attention that this series brought,” Carolina coach Chad Holbrook said. “Two of them were in the environment for the first time, and that was good to see.”

South Carolina sits at 15-5 in the SEC, while Florida is a game back at 14-6 with nine league games remaining. Texas A&M trails USC by 1 1/2 games, and Vandy is 2 1/2 games back.

Holbrook likes where his team sits with series at Kentucky, at home against Texas A&M and at Alabama remaining.

“I would have definitely signed up for this at the start of the year if you told me you have nine games left and you control your own destiny,” he said. “We are in a decent spot. We are in a decent position to compete for a championship.”

South Carolina still has a lead in the SEC due in large part to Webb, who pitched opposite likely top-10 pick Puk on Saturday and went 7 1/3 innings while allowing five hits and one run.

He had the pressure of taking the mound after the Gamecocks blew a late lead in Game 1 of the series Friday night, and knew he had to pitch well as runs would be hard to come by against Florida’s hard-throwing lefty.

Webb threw all of his pitches for strikes and earned his ninth win of the year. The only run he allowed came on a solo homer that barely made it over the right-field wall.

“I don’t think that there’s any team in this country that we can’t compete with,” he said.

Hill’s stats won’t count, but he didn’t allow a hit over four innings on Sunday, and while the Gators did work four walks, the righty escaped damage each time.

With two on in the first inning, he got out of a jam with a groundball to first baseman LT Tolbert, and with two on in the fourth inning he struck out Gators catcher Mike Rivera on a high fastball to strand two more runners.

Even without stats from Sunday’s outing, Hill remains 6-0 with a 2.57 ERA.

The two freshmen, along with ace Clarke Schmidt, have reshaped a South Carolina starting rotation that was up to the challenge against a Florida pitching staff that is considered by many to be the best in the nation.

In 21 1/2 innings over the weekend, the teams each scored six runs.

“Both pitching staffs stepped up. Two one-run games. This one was one hit between both teams through three and a half innings. Both teams probably feel good about their pitching moving forward,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “Schmidt is really good. He's one of the better Friday night guys in our league, which means he's one of the better Friday night guys in the country. Yesterday's start was very good and today's start by their freshman was very good.”

South Carolina’s pitching staff has several big starts to make as South Carolina attempts to maintain its SEC lead in the final three weeks of the regular season, and Holbrook feels good about where the starters are and the team is after what he saw against the Gators.

“They certainly threw very, very well against an elite team. Hopefully, that’ll give them some confidence as we go into the week ahead,” Holbrook said. “We got good starting pitching this weekend against a great team, and I hope that that bodes well going down the stretch… If you measure yourself against the best then I feel good about how our team competed against them.”

This story was originally published May 1, 2016 at 7:53 PM.