Baseball notebook: USC playing with new mindset after hitting slump
South Carolina coach Chad Holbrook had a talk with his team about being more aggressive after the Gamecocks averaged less than three runs in four games last week.
USC struggled at the plate, particularly with runners on base, in losses to North Carolina and Georgia.
South Carolina showed signs of life Wednesday night against Furman, pounding out 18 hits in a 14-4 win over the Paladins.
“I just felt like the past couple of weeks we got into a habit of being too passive. We were wishing some good things were going to happen to us,” Holbrook said. “We weren’t aggressive enough. We weren’t aggressive enough in our approach. We weren’t aggressive enough in the way we swung the bat. We weren’t aggressive enough in the way we ran the bases, and some of that’s on me.”
While the pitching was not SEC level, USC stole five bases and had eight extra-base hits against Furman.
“We’ve worked hard this week on some things offensively, and I think they’ve applied it to the games. Hopefully that will continue. It was nice to see them take a deep breath yesterday and get some hits, some extra-base hits,” Holbrook said. “The quality of our at bats were much better and much more consistent, and they should feel a lot better about themselves today that they did yesterday.”
CONE STREAKING
South Carolina outfielder Gene Cone has gone from out of the lineup to nearing a school record.
After receiving only minimal playing time early on in the year, Cone has a 24-game hitting streak entering this weekend’s series with Missouri. If he records a hit in all three games against the Tigers he will break Whit Merrifield’s record of 26 games, which spanned the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
“He’s been very, very consistent,” Holbrook said. “Gene’s very experienced. He’s worked hard. He’s very comfortable. I’m really, really happy for him. He’s been very consistent for us, probably our most consistent player. He’s doing just what we asked him to do.”
MISSOURI PITCHERS PRESENT A CHALLENGE
The Tigers are only 4-11 in the SEC but have two very good pitchers at the top of their staff in Reggie McClain and Tanner Houck.
McClain is 3-2 with a 3.92 ERA, while Houck is 4-3 with a 3.22 ERA. McClain is ranked the No. 8 college senior for the upcoming draft by Perfect Game, and Houck is the No. 1 prospect in the 2017 MLB draft.
“Those two guys are as good as anybody in the league when you’re talking about McClain from a pitchability standpoint, he’s probably one of the more polished pitchers in the league, and Houck is probably the No. 1 pick in the first round of next year’s draft,” Holbrook said. “We’re going to have our hands full with those guys.”
HOME COOKING
South Carolina is set to play nine of its next 12 SEC games at home after finishing up a stretch of nine of 12 SEC games on the road. USC is 22-1 at home this season.
“That’s one of the reasons I’m pretty proud of this group for putting themselves in the position that they’re in,” Holbrook said of the stretch of road games.
The Gamecocks host Missouri this weekend before facing Florida at Founders Park next weekend. The Gators are tied with South Carolina at the top of the SEC.
This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 9:32 PM with the headline "Baseball notebook: USC playing with new mindset after hitting slump."