Why South Carolina baseball is confident in its new-look pitching staff
For a game dominated by numbers, it’s sometimes odd how many surprises baseball season brings. There are welcome revelations and ones that leave you dumbfounded.
South Carolina loves to talk of surprises, which is why the story of Ethan Petry is so often brought up.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pounder showed up to campus, touted and triumphed but still a mystery. His first fall didn’t change that. Petry struggled during the fall scrimmages and saw just one ball leave the park.
Then came the season. Petry tweaked a big kick to a little toe tap and it looked like Thor was messing around with tennis balls. Petry broke the USC freshman record for home runs (23) and was on every All-American team in the country.
“It shocked me, at least, when he came out and did what he did,” said left-handed pitcher Matthew Becker. “Like what changed?”
That is the beauty of baseball, where nothing can be judged until Opening Day.
Which is just what South Carolina’s pitching staff is ready for. The talk of this offseason has centered on the mound, where the Gamecocks are basically replacing their entire starting rotation.
South Carolina’s main trio of weekend starters — Jack Mahoney, Noah Hall and Will Sanders — are gone. As are relievers/spot-starters James Hicks, Nick Proctor, Cade Austin, Wesley Sweatt.
In total: The Gamecocks lost over 60% of its pitching production (innings) from the 2023 squad that fell to Florida in the super regionals.
Naturally, there is doubt surrounding the USC pitching staff.
“I think our pitching has a chance to respond just the way our offense did last year,” head coach Mark Kingston said.
Added catcher Cole Messina: “I see a group of guys who are working extremely hard every day who can really help us. I think a lot of people will be shocked come Opening Day.”
Who’s on the mound starting against Miami (Ohio) on Friday, Feb. 16 at 4 p.m. is still up in the air. Heck, the entire weekend rotation is still up in the air.
At the moment, it seems there are four pitchers competing for three spots: Becker, junior Eli Jones, junior Dylan Eskew and Roman Kimball, the Notre Dame transfer who missed all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Becker, the lone left-hander of the group, is the most experienced starter of the group, doing it 11 times last season (4-3 record). The junior mainly uses only two pitches, a four-seam fastball and a curveball, but stuck out more batters per inning than any other Gamecock last season.
“(They) really work well off each other,” said Becker, a Chapin native.
Jones, a righty, threw more innings than any of the returners (54.2). Using primarily a two-seam fastball that almost looks like a sinker, Jones had a sub-4.00 ERA last season with a 63-17 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
“I’m not scared of anyone going out there,” Jones said. “I trust all of us to get the job done.”
Meanwhile, Eskew and Kimball are still a bit unknown in Columbia.
Eskew only took the mound five times last season and Kimball hasn’t pitched in a game in almost two years, back when he was 4-0 and helped the Fighting Irish to the College World Series.
“Roman has the ability to be a weekend starter in our league,” Kingston said of Kimball. “At his best, he’s (throwing) 95 (mph), might be touching 96. ... We’re really excited about him.”
The South Carolina pitchers are also excited about the opportunity.
They understand the narrative that comes when basically half a pitching staff leaves. They also know they can surprise people.
“We’ve got a lot of sneaky experience,” Becker said. “We learned a lot from (the guys who left). And even in our limited roles that we’ve had over the past years, I think we’ve learned a lot and had that experience that no one sees on paper.”
USC BASEBALL SCHEDULE
A look at the early-season schedule for the Gamecocks.
- Feb. 16-18, vs. Miami (Ohio)
- Feb. 20, vs. Winthrop
- Feb. 21, vs. Queens
- Feb. 23-25, vs. Belmont
- Feb. 27, vs. Garner-Webb
- March 1, vs. Clemson
- March 2, vs. Clemson (at Segra Park)
- March 3, at Clemson
This story was originally published February 2, 2024 at 8:59 AM with the headline "Why South Carolina baseball is confident in its new-look pitching staff."
