Big innings power South Carolina to dominant series-opening win over Utah Valley
South Carolina’s bats didn’t need much help Friday night at Founders Park, but they got plenty from Utah Valley pitching. The result was a 15-3 series-opening blowout for USC.
The Gamecocks (4-1) drew nine walks against Wolverine pitchers and connected for 12 hits, six for extra bases, to power USC to tie its highest run total since June 5, 2016.
“They just took good at-bats,” coach Mark Kingston said of his players. “They walked us some and obviously I thought our guys had good discipline about them tonight. When they got a pitch to hit, they hit it hard, and when they didn’t, they laid off.”
Junior catcher Luke Berryhill was even hit by pitches three times, tying a single-game program record.
“At the end of the day, that’s a good job by him. If they make mistakes, our job is not to get out of the way of balls,” Kingston said. We’re not allowed by NCAA rules to try to get hit by pitches, but you can protect yourself in a way that if you get hit, you get hit and you become a baserunner.
All told, eight of Carolina’s nine starters reached base multiple times, and six different Gamecocks had RBIs.
“We’re confident in our whole lineup,” senior third baseman Jacob Olson said. “The top half’s hitting, got some guys that are bouncing around, but we got confidence in everybody.”
The vast majority of South Carolina’s damage was done in three innings, as the Gamecocks scored five runs in the third and sixth innings and four in the fourth.
The offensive bonanza began with a bang — sophomore second baseman Noah Campbell laced a hard line drive off the shin of Utah Valley starter Jake Carr for a single in the third. Berryhill added a two-RBI double, Olson had a two-run homer and freshman left fielder Brady Allen smacked an RBI double to cap the inning.
Berryhill picked up another RBI when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fourth. Olson followed with a two-RBI double and Allen walked with the bases loaded to add another run.
That four-run fourth wiped out Utah Valley’s only offense of the night — USC sophomore starter Carmen Mlodzinski issued four walks and a balk in the top of the fourth and was hurt by an error, leading to three Wolverine runs.
“Bottom line, you can’t walk guys. He had five walks in four innings ... bottom line, we stress to our guys, you want to pitch for us, you have to throw strikes, you can’t walk guys. And he walked guys tonight, that’s why he came out,” Kingston said.
The rout was officially on in the sixth when Campbell launched a three-run home run to make it 14-3.
Meanwhile, Utah Valley could get nothing going against the Gamecocks’ bullpen, which threw five scoreless frames and lowered its ERA on the season to 1.24. Freshman Wesley Sweatt made his first career appearance and was “outstanding,” Kingston said, with two shutout innings.
“It’s good experience to get my feet wet, finally,” Sweatt said. “I felt like I pitched pretty well, just tried to attack the strike zone.”
Star of the game: Noah Campbell continued to find his stroke after a slow start, going 2-for-4 with three runs, three RBIs and a walk.
“For me (the change) was really just getting into the batting cage, just looking at my swings when I’ve had success versus when I struggled a little bit, and just making some changes, just trying to be relaxed up there, not so tense,” Campbell said of his start.
Next
South Carolina and Utah Valley return to the field at Founders Park at 2 p.m. on Saturday for the middle game in their series. The contest will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.
This story was originally published February 22, 2019 at 7:30 PM.
