South Carolina crushes Winthrop as Wes Clarke’s home run parade continues
As South Carolina baseball heads into this weekend’s rivalry series with Clemson, the No. 17 Gamecocks remain undefeated — and junior Wes Clarke remains scorching hot.
Facing Winthrop on Tuesday evening at Founders Park, Clarke crushed three home runs to lead USC to a 12-4 win, the first three-home run game for Carolina since Justin Smoak did so in 2008.
“Honestly, no,” Clarke said when asked if he had ever had a better game than his performance Tuesday. “That’s the first time I’ve ever had three in one game, and it feels pretty good.”
In the season’s first four games, the co-SEC Player of the Week has now hit six home runs to go with a .769 batting average and 2.308 slugging percentage.
“He’s a great player that’s playing really, really well right now,” coach Mark Kingston said. “He’s locked in, he’s strong, it’s a simple swing. I’ve said it a million times what he is. Right now, he’s just a player that loves to play, and he’s locked in.”
All three of Clarke’s long balls Tuesday were solo shots to left field. The first, in the third inning, put South Carolina up 2-0. The second, in the sixth frame, padded Carolina’s lead to 7-3. And the third, in the eighth, pushed the advantage to 10-4.
“I don’t really think it’s a surprise,” Clarke said of his torrid start. “Me and the rest of the team really work hard, especially in the weight room. We’re all really strong and we work very hard. We take our swings every day very serious, and all of our work’s paying off.”
Indeed, Clarke wasn’t the only Gamecock to get in on the power parade Tuesday — the Gamecocks hit seven home runs total, their most in a game since 2010, also against Winthrop. Senior outfielder Andrew Eyster had one in the third inning two batters after Clarke, and sophomore outfielder Braylen Wimmer, junior first baseman David Mendham and junior designated hitter Josiah Sightler all went deep in the eighth inning as well. All seven long balls were solo shots.
“It was the first day we’ve played in warm weather in a long, long time, so you thought it would be a day that could be a little more offensive for us, and obviously that proved to be true,” Kingston said. “Just saw a lot of good at-bats up and down the lineup, and you want to have a lineup that can stretch one through nine, and I think we have that.”
On top of those big hits, South Carolina’s bats got some help from Winthrop’s defense, which committed three errors. The Gamecocks’ very first run, to take a 1-0 lead in the second inning, came after Sightler reached on an error, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored when senior second baseman Jeff Heinrich flared a bloop into shallow right-center that the defenders nearly collided diving for.
Then, in the fifth inning with the game knotted at 3-3, Eagles right fielder Jonathan Strauss over-ran a fly ball from Wimmer, letting it drop behind him for a double. After a walk from Clarke, Mendham sent a grounder to first base. Looking to go to second base to start a double play, Winthrop first baseman Andrew Jenner threw the ball high and into left field, letting Wimmer score.
A pair of singles from Sightler and Heinrich followed, plating two more unearned runs. Sightler finished 3 for 5 at the plate with two RBIs, both career-best marks.
“I felt really good. I would say this is the first time in the three years that I’ve been here that I actually have confidence at the plate. So I would say going into it, I saw my name in the lineup, said (let’s) take advantage of the opportunity, if I think I can get a good swing off on a pitch, just take advantage of every swing I can take,” Sightler said.
On the mound, South Carolina trotted out a parade of eight pitchers, with none going more than 2 2/3 innings. That was intentional, Kingston said, in order to keep them all fresh for this weekend’s rivalry series.
NEXT USC BASEBALL GAME
Who: No. 17 South Carolina (4-0) vs. Clemson (3-0)
When: 4 p.m. Friday
Where: Doug Kingsmore Stadium
Watch: Streaming online on ACC Network Extra via WatchESPN
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 7:53 PM.
