USC baseball finishes midweek 2-0 with win over Charleston Southern. What we saw

South Carolina baseball needed a pick-me-up. Or two.

After dropping its rivalry series with Clemson thanks to a pair of lackluster losses on Feb. 28 and March 1, USC returned to Founders Park this week for a five-game home stand against non-power conference opponents with a chance to get back on course and boost morale before SEC play begins in nine days.

The Gamecocks started off on the right foot, surging past USC Upstate 12-3 on Tuesday.

The next night, USC battled through a much quieter offensive performance to scrape past Charleston Southern 4-1 and finish the in-state midweek slate undefeated.

“They made some big pitches at some big times,” USC coach Paul Mainieri said. “We did enough to win tonight, rode our pitching staff again and got the big hit from Ethan and went on to win a game against a good ball club.”

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday night’s win:

Patient approach doesn’t last

Clemson’s pitchers held South Carolina (9-5) to a 12-91 (.132) effort at the plate across three games vs. Clemson. Tigers pitcher Michael Sharman threw a complete game against USC in Game 2 on Feb. 28, allowing just four hits and no walks. The Gamecocks drew five walks in the 7-0 series-opening win, but walked just twice the rest of the series.

USC also drew zero walks in Tuesday’s win against the Spartans.

The Gamecocks came out more patient against the Buccaneers (10-2), drawing two walks and getting Charleston Southern starter Kale Hopke pulled in the opening inning. Aaron Jamison worked a 2-1 count before hitting a solo home run to give USC a 2-0 lead in the second inning.

That patience would quickly go away as USC returned to a swing-first, get-on-base-later approach. The Gamecocks allowed CSU reliever Zach Stichweh to toss three scoreless frames in only two more pitches (28) than the prior Buccaneers pitchers threw in two innings (26). He struck out four batters in a six at-bat stretch during that time.

USC finished with seven strikeouts and three walks Wednesday.

Connor Chicoli gets away clean

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Connor Chicoli has carved out a role as a midweek starter for USC, and continued to work in that role against the Buccaneers.

He tossed 4.1 scoreless innings Wednesday, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out two batters. Entering the game 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA through eight innings pitched, his start against Charleston Southern was no doubt his most effective of the year so far. But he couldn’t do it without a little help from Brandon Stone.

Chicoli was pulled midway through the fifth inning after loading the bases, putting his scoreless outing and the Gamecocks’ lead at risk. Stone, who was pulled from the starting rotation this past weekend and moved to the bullpen, came in and secured the last two outs to keep Chicoli’s stat sheet clean.

“I think (Chicoli) maybe put a guy on, and we kind of had an idea, they said like, ‘All right, Stone, you’re gonna get ready to go.’ And I went in there and just threw a lot of ground balls again, and let my defense work for me,” Stone said.

Stone allowed a run to score in the sixth to make it 2-1. He finished with 2.2 innings of 1-run ball, allowing four hits and a walk while tossing three strikeouts. He was awarded the winning decision.

“Brandon is a very unselfish player. He started the season in the rotation, didn’t do anything really to warrant being taken out of the rotation, but I went to him and I said, ‘Look, I just need you in the bullpen. We’re moving Gunther into the rotation. Somebody’s got to come out,’” Mainieri said. “But it’s not that the other guys are out-pitching you. I just know that you’re more of a quality relief pitcher.”

Ethan Lizama, Alex Valentin seal the deal

After a stretch of three scoreless innings for USC, outfielder Ethan Lizama got the offense rolling for a moment and helped extend the Gamecocks’ lead. He squared up on a two-out double, scoring two runs to make it a 4-1 ballgame. They were the last runs the Gamecocks would score, and the last runs they needed.

“I was just looking for a good pitch to hit. It’s always nice to have guys on base, and I just showed up at that time,” Lizama said.

USC closer Alex Valentin took over for USC in the eighth inning. He pitched two scoreless frames with four strikeouts for his third save of the season. Valentin has yet to allow an earned run this year.

“The most important pitchers on your team are the Game 1 starter, the Game 2 starter and the closer. Even more than the Game 3 starter. … It’s still a little bit of a work in progress for us,” Mainieri said. “I felt that Alex was going to be a really good pitcher. He’s good enough to be a starting pitcher … but somebody’s gotta pitch those important innings for us.”

South Carolina baseball upcoming schedule

• Saturday, March 7: vs. Princeton (doubleheader), 1 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
• Saturday, March 7: vs. Princeton (doubleheader), 4:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
• Sunday, March 8: vs. Princeton, 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)

This story was originally published March 4, 2026 at 10:09 PM.