South Carolina baseball outlasts Winthrop for first midweek win of the season
After an opening weekend that would’ve made most film critics blush, South Carolina took home its first midweek victory of the season Tuesday in drama-free fashion.
Despite stranding 14 runners and finishing 7 for 25 with men on base, USC (3-1) cruised to a 7-1 win over Winthrop (2-2) at Founders Park.
“Left a lot of guys on base tonight,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “Fourteen guys — got to be better than that — but when you win 7-1, you say ‘Good job’ and you move on to the next.”
That South Carolina won handily Tuesday came to little surprise. USC hasn’t lost to a Big South team since dropping a midweek contest to Gardner Webb in 2019 and has won seven consecutive contests against the league.
The opening weekend offensive inconsistency that plagued South Carolina in its narrow series win over UNC Greensboro, though, persisted into the second week of the young college baseball season.
USC stranded at least seven runners in each of its three games against UNCG. A 9-for-39 mark with runners in scoring position across the trio of contests didn’t exactly aid the cause.
Tuesday, South Carolina left eight runners aboard in the first three innings alone, while starting 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position.
Thrice the Gamecocks loaded the bases in the first four innings against the visiting Eagles. USC got just four runs to show for it via a 1-for-9 mark.
“Too early to evaluate,” Kingston said when asked to grade the offense with runners in scoring position thus far. “Baseball is all about sample size and four games is not even a small sample size. It’s just the beginning of starting to see what your team looks like.”
Lack of a game-breaking hit aside, South Carolina progressively chipped away at Winthrop’s pesky pitching staff.
Virginia Tech transfer Kevin Madden recorded his third consecutive multi-hit game for USC in a 2-for-5, 2-RBI effort. Madden notched his first hit of the day legging out a chopper with two outs in the fourth inning to score Braylen Wimmer from third.
Four innings later, the former Hokie clocked a changeup from Winthrop reliever Reese Lumpkin into the visiting bullpen for a solo homer and South Carolina’s first extra-base hit of the game.
“Usually, I do take a while to get going,” Madden conceded postgame. “... Everyone’s messing around with me (that) I’m hitting a lot of balls to the shortstop, but I’m hitting the ball hard and putting it in play, so it’s a good start for the team.”
Third-year catcher Colin Burgess delivered USC’s only bases-loaded hit of the contest, flaring a single to shallow left field to score a pair of runs in the third inning.
Senior Andrew Eyster and freshman Michael Braswell each recorded RBI singles of their own to continue their their scorching starts to the 2022 campaign.
Redshirt freshman Cade Austin earned the starting nod and win on the mound Tuesday.
The Chapin product allowed six runs on five hits in 1.2 innings in his first outing as a Gamecock on Friday. Austin said he chatted with a handful of older members of the pitching staff who struggled in their first appearances at South Carolina. Those talks had a clear impact on Tuesday.
The right-hander allowed runners on first and second in the first and fourth innings Tuesday. Twice he evaded any major issues.
Austin’s encore amounted to four innings of four-hit ball and three strikeouts on just 52 pitches. He and freshman reliever Aidan Hunter combined to throw seven innings and issue just one walk.
“It was nice to go out there and pitch more to my capability,” Austin said. “Just to show, sort of, who I am.”
Behind Austin, Hunter, John Gilreath and CJ Weins allowed just three hits over the final five innings of action to send South Carolina to its third victory of the year.
Next South Carolina Baseball Game
Who: South Carolina vs. George Washington
When: 4 p.m. Friday at Founders Park in Columbia, S.C.
TV: SEC Network-plus
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 7:04 PM.
