Pair of Gamecocks earn SEC honors after dominating Clemson
As if taking two of three against your biggest rival and rising into the national rankings wasn’t good enough, South Carolina baseball has added some individual honors after its stellar weekend.
The Gamecocks’ senior center fielder TJ Hopkins was named the SEC Player of the Week on Monday, while freshman pitcher Brett Kerry was named the conference’s Co-Freshman of the Week.
Hopkins homered three times this weekend against Clemson and earned the team’s Tom Price Award, given to the series MVP. He finished the three games 7-for-15 at the plate for a .467 batting average and nine RBIs. He was also named one of Collegiate Baseball’s national players of the week.
Kerry, meanwhile, made two appearances this week, once against Appalachian State and once against Clemson. In those appearances, he struck out nine batters in 4 1/3 innings while not giving up an earned run. Against the Tigers, the rookie came in and threw 3 1/3 shutout innings, striking out seven.
Kerry and Hopkins are the first USC players to be receive an SEC weekly award this season. The last time South Carolina had an SEC Player of the Week was in 2016, when Gene Cone was honored, while pitcher Logan Chapman was the last player to earn Freshman of the Week honors, on April 23, 2018.
South Carolina returns to the diamond Tuesday to host The Citadel at Founders Park. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.
This story was originally published March 4, 2019 at 1:09 PM.
