2/23/2019 baseball Edit

Baseball by the numbers: Dominant bullpen, great hitting pacing Gamecocks

Will Helms • GamecockScoop

Staff Writer

While Will has covered all aspects South Carolina football, basketball and baseball for six years, he has become known for his use of advanced statistics and analytics in his writing.

South Carolina is now 4-1 after a 15-3 win over Utah Valley Friday night in another solid offensive performance supplemented by excellent relief pitching. After five games, trends are starting to take shape and as the sample size grows, the stats are becoming more reliable.

Brett Kerry || Katie Dugan (Katie Dugan)

— Noah Campbell started the year 0-13 against Liberty before singling in the eighth inning on Sunday. Including that hit, he is six for his last 10, with five runs, three RBIs and two walks. He’s reached base three times in each of his last two games. His home run in the sixth inning was the fourth of his career.

— Though the Gamecocks aren’t hitting for a high average — just .273 as a team — they are getting on base and slugging at better than average rates. With an on-base percentage of .407, the Gamecocks have an incredible walk rate of 16 percent, or about 7.1 walks per nine innings. Throw in hit-by-pitches, and South Carolina is averaging one free base per inning (40 walks/HBPs in 42 innings). Nearly 50 percent (22 out of 47) of South Carolina’s hits have been for extra bases, leading to a .506 slugging percentage.

— Jacob Olson is leading the charge, now with six extra base hits and two singles on the season. He leads the team with a .952 slugging percentage and is third with a .458 on base percentage. His eight RBIs are tied for the team lead with Luke Berryhill.

— Carmen Mlodzinski struggled late in his second outing, walking five batters over four-plus innings. Still, he allowed just one earned run, bringing his season ERA down to 4.32. He was only charged with one earned run to go with five strikeouts.

— South Carolina’s bullpen was again nearly unhittable. Brett Kerry, Wesley Sweatt and Gage Hinson combined to allow five hits and no runs in five scoreless innings of relief. Kerry and Sweatt combined for six strikeouts and just three soft hits (two of which were Kerry’s first two of the year) in four innings. Kerry now has nine strikeouts and no walks in five scoreless innings this year.

— The bullpen has allowed three earned runs in 26 ⅓ innings of relief, good for a bullpen ERA of 1.02. With just 13 hits and six walks allowed, the bullpen WHIP (walks + hits per inning pitched) is .71 (For reference, Mariners reliever Edwin Diaz posted a .79 WHIP last year in what was regarded as one of the greatest seasons for a reliever this century). The Gamecocks’ bullpen has struck out 13 more batters than it has allowed to reach base.

— Brett Kerry had nine strikeouts in five innings to go with two hits, so he is striking out 53 percent of the batters he’s faced this year.