USC ace Clarke Schmidt expects to be back at his best

South Carolina ace Clarke Schmidt got back to the basics after failing to make it out of the fifth inning in each of his past two starts.

The sophomore believes he is ready to pitch as well as he has all year when the Gamecocks face Rhode Island Friday night to open the NCAA tournament.

“I feel like I had a really, really good week of preparation this week,” Schmidt said. “I’ve probably thrown the best bullpens I’ve thrown all year because I was getting back into that mindset that I had at the beginning of the year.”

Schmidt studied his mechanics with pitching coach Jerry Meyers and found that he was pulling off some pitches toward the end of the year.

The righty allowed three runs or more in five of his final six starts after doing so only twice in his first nine starts, but believes he is ready to get back to his early-season form in his first career postseason start.

“Sometimes when you get this deep into the season you forget about the basics,” Schmidt said. “I think this is really good. It’s a new season.”

BATTERED AND BRUISED

Half of South Carolina’s starting infield is banged up.

Second baseman DC Arendas has a sore finger after a ground ball bent back his fingernail, while third baseman Jonah Bride missed the past two days of practice with back spasms.

USC coach Chad Holbrook said he thinks Arendas will be able to play but isn’t as sure about Bride.

“Jonah has some back spasms, muscle strain. Those are day-to-day. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow,” he said.

ACE IN THE HOLE

Rhode Island ace Tyler Wilson is 12-1 with a 2.08 ERA, and is 6-0 in his past six starts with an ERA of 0.17

While he has not faced SEC-level competition, his numbers have the attention of the Gamecocks.

“It’s no different than a Friday night game in the SEC. He’s very, very talented,” Holbrook said. “He’s got a good arm. He’s got great off-speed pitches. He throws strikes.”

Rhode Island coach Raphael Cerrato said the lefty will not be overwhelmed by the Gamecocks lineup.

“We feel like Tyler can beat anyone in the country,” he said.

NOT ALONG FOR THE RIDE

Cerrato said his team is far from just satisfied to be playing in the NCAA tournament.

“We expect to win this regional. If you don’t expect to win this regional you shouldn’t be here,” he said. “We want to play through the weekend, and that’s what our expectations are.”

He said the Gamecocks being heavy favorites might help his club.

“There’s pressure on South Carolina,” Cerrato said. “They’re expected to win. There’s not really pressure on us.”

NCAA EXPERIENCE

Duke is making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1961, but the Blue Devils do have some postseason experience on their team.

Brian McAfee, who will start for Duke Friday night against UNCW, pitched in the NCAA tournament in 2012 while playing at Cornell. He transferred to Duke as a graduate for his final season of eligibility.

ON A HIGH NOTE

Duke enters the postseason winners of nine of its past 11 games. The Blue Devils won 23 of their final 32 games after opening the season 10-13, including 1-7 in the ACC.

“We were a much more offensive club over the second half of the season and I think by putting some more runs on the board allowed our pitching staff and our defense to relax a little bit and not feel like they had to be perfect all the time,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said. “We got punched in the mouth a little bit and we learned from it.”

This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 5:28 PM with the headline "USC ace Clarke Schmidt expects to be back at his best."