3 things we learned as No. 6 South Carolina baseball downs USC Upstate
Mark Kingston’s bunch is rolling into another weekend series.
No. 6 South Carolina (29-4) defeated USC-Upstate 7-2 on Tuesday night ahead of a marquee Southeastern Conference road trip at No. 4 Vanderbilt.
The Gamecocks moved to 9-1 in midweek action with the victory and 2-0 against the Spartans (22-13) this spring.
Here are three takeaways from the win:
South Carolina’s young arms hold down the mound
South Carolina’s pitching staff may well be what leads it to a deep postseason run, and the youngsters are getting involved.
Matthew Becker started Tuesday night’s affair with a 1-2-3 inning via a pair of strikeouts and long flyout to right field. Becker didn’t allow a hit in his two innings of work and threw strikes on 15 of his 26 pitches.
Eli Jerzembeck, who didn’t pitch this past weekend against No. 1 LSU, took over in the third inning. The talented righty who figures to be in the weekend rotation next year allowed just one hit over two innings. Jerzembeck also struck out two of the seven batters he faced.
“When you give up four hits (as a staff) in a midweek game, I think that speaks to our pitching depth,” Kingston said postgame. “Very pleased with that.”
Becker and Jerzembeck have evolved into reliable bullpen arms for the Gamecocks in 2023, and it’s expected both will pitch this weekend in Nashville.
Ethan Petry is chasing South Carolina history
Ethan Petry just keeps hitting.
The freshman phenom clobbered his 16th home run of the season in the first inning of Tuesday night’s contest, clubbing a 2-1 offering from USC-Upstate starter Caleb Costa just shy of the scoreboard in left field.
Petry is now one home run shy of the Justin Smoak’s South Carolina freshman home run record with 22 regular-season games remaining. The Florida native is on pace for just over 26 home runs on the season.
He finished the night 3-for-5 with the homer and a perfectly executed hit-and-run through the left side to set up Cole Messina’s RBI single that scored Dylan Brewer from second. Petry is also now hitting a team-high .449 on the year. Should that number hold, he’d break the USC all-time batting average record set by .419 by Ryan Bordenick in 1997.
“Believe it or not, he could still be in high school. There are guys older than him playing high school baseball, which is amazing,” Kingston said.. ”But when you combine that strength, that ability to see the ball very well and that swing path, you get an elite hitter.”
Gamecocks struggle with runners in scoring position
South Carolina’s offense has taken a legitimate step forward in 2023.
After one of the worst offensive seasons in recent memory a year ago, the Gamecocks led the SEC in home runs and RBIs and were second in the league in on-base percentage entering the week.
Tuesday, though, was a bit of a slog.
South Carolina stranded 10 runners in the win over USC-Upstate, including leaving the bases loaded in both the third and fourth innings. The Spartans inflicted much of their own damage, walking in four runs on the night, while the Gamecocks were just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
“We had a lot of hard-hit balls tonight that were literally right at the third baseman, right at the first baseman,” Kingston said. “Petry hit another ball to the wall. We hit the ball well tonight. We had eight hits. Could have easily been 12 or 13, but it was one of those nights where we had a lot of hard-hit balls right at guys, and sometimes that happens.”
Vanderbilt entered the week ranked third in the SEC in ERA and led the conference in opposing batting average (.198). South Carolina scored 20 runs over two games in its two-game split with LSU this past weekend. It will need to take advantage of what could be limited opportunities at Vanderbilt.
South Carolina baseball schedule: Next four games
Friday: at Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Extra)
Saturday: at Vanderbilt, 3 p.m. (SEC Network Extra)
Sunday: at Vanderbilt, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Extra)
April 18: vs. Charleston Southern, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Extra)
This story was originally published April 11, 2023 at 9:52 PM.
