Starter Eli Jones powers USC baseball to Opening Day victory
Eli Jones is a one-man assembly line. He does not wow with speed or dazzle with power. His gift is efficacy. Simple, repeatable tasks over and over until the job is done.
The South Carolina junior whips two-seam fastball after two-seam fastball. Darting 92- to 94-mph bullets that break down and away from lefties and into the ankles of right-handed hitters. If you’re a Gamecocks outfielder and Jones is on the mound, load your pockets with seeds and don’t bother tying your shoes.
“I’m gonna try and throw as many fastballs over the plate as I can,” Jones said. “Gonna try to get outs early and get deeper into games.”
During Jones’ Opening Day victory on Friday night, the 6-foot-1 starter recorded 18 outs. Only two occurred in the outfield. The 25th-ranked Gamecocks rolled to a 5-1 win over Miami (Ohio) and will play the Redhawks again at noon Saturday.
Jones finished his Opening Day with a quality start, pitching six innings while allowing just one earned run, three hits, no walks and striking out five.
“You saw why we threw him out there,” said seventh-year head coach Mark Kingston. “It allows everyone to relax when you have a pitcher who’s pounding the strike zone, letting your defense work and not creating a lot of traffic out there on the bases.”
It was the perfect beginning to the 2024 South Carolina baseball season. No fuss. No stress. No looming anxiety about the pitching staff. Phew.
The South Carolina arms were/are a question. The Gamecocks are replacing over 60% of their pitching production from the 2023 squad that fell to Florida in the super regionals.
Jones started just six games last season. Saturday starter Dylan Eskew has never started for the Gamecocks. And Sunday starter Roman Kimball hasn’t pitched in a real game since having Tommy John surgery almost two years ago.
Even Gamecocks Athletic Director and legendary baseball coach Ray Tanner was circling the pitching staff as a possible bugaboo for Kingston.
“I think the question is: Will his pitching staff elevate from where they were before,” Tanner told The State this week. “A lot of the guys who started last year have moved on.”
Through one game, Jones is helping shift the narrative.
The Georgia native, who rehabbed from Tommy John surgery before joining South Carolina in 2022, pitched sparingly for the Gamecocks as a freshman. He was mainly a bullpen arm but notched some spot starts throughout the year.
The USC coaches waited as long as they could to name a starter, calling Jones into their office this week to inform him he’d be the first guy to throw a pitch this season. Talking about it days later, he told the whole story with a grin.
And perhaps the excitement turned to nerves. He hit the first batter of the evening then allowed an opposite-field single to the No. 2 hitter. The Redhawks would score a quick run, but the ever-efficient Jones escaped the first inning in just a dozen pitches.
“It’s hard not to have (jitters) with it being Opening Day,” Jones said. “But I think I handled it pretty well.”
From there, he grooved fastball after fastball low into the zone, forcing ground ball after ground ball and a whole lot of action for shortstop Will Tippett.
The offense, not at all a question mark in the preseason, quickly gave Jones the lead, scoring five runs in the second inning. Cole Messina doubled. Talmadge LeCroy singled. Tyler Causey singled. Dylan Brewer put an RBI single off the left-field wall, then Tippett bunted an RBI single about 18 inches off the plate.
Neither team scored the rest of the game. Folks were in their cars less than three hours after first pitch. Efficacy is a beautiful thing.
Next four South Carolina baseball games
- Saturday vs. Miami (Ohio), noon (SEC Network Plus)
- Sunday vs. Miami (Ohio), 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Tuesday vs. Winthrop, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Wednesday vs. Queens, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
This story was originally published February 16, 2024 at 6:56 PM.
