By Sinderella
Coming into the season, the big question South Carolina had to answer was about how good the pitching can be after replacing their entire starting rotation and key bullpen pieces lost to the MLB draft. In their opening weekend series versus Miami (OH), South Carolina used a dominant pitching performance from 15 different pitchers to shut down the Redhawks for a three-game sweep.
The final state line from the entire staff was:
25 innings
3 Earned Runs
27 Strikeouts
2 XBH Allowed
1 No-Hitter
3-0
There is not much more you can do to be more dominant than that. The no-hitter came in game three from the five-man group of: Roman Kimball, Ty Good, Tyler Pitzer, Parker Marlatt, and Tyler Dean. All five of those pitchers pitched a combined 0 innings for the Gamecocks last season.
The only player even on the team then was Roman Kimball, and he was injured for the year with Tommy John. Speaking of Kimball, this was his first pitching performance in a competitive game in 609 days. What a way to make a comeback! We saw more big-time pitching performances out of Eli Jones, Chris Veach, Dylan Eskew, Garrett Gainey, and more! The pitching was the shining group of the weekend, but that does not mean the offense was not good.
The South Carolina offense was considered as one of the best offense in the country by almost everyone in the college baseball scene. They came out and had a great showing, as they hung 30 runs over the three game series. The surprising thing was it came from small-ball play, as there were only two home runs, both solo shots from Ethan Petry in back-to-back plate appearances in game two. South Carolina's offense produced 30 runs on 28 hits (only the pair of home runs) with 33 walks. The small-ball approach goes to show you this South Carolina offense can beat you in many different ways, and if you combined that with a better pitching staff than anticipated, we could be watching a potential Omaha run for the Gamecocks.
Looking ahead: South Carolina has midweek games versus Winthrop, Queens, and a weekend series versus Belmont.
(All pictures courtesy of @GamecockBasebll on X)
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