Things got tight for South Carolina during the middle of Saturday’s win over Dayton, but the Gamecocks were able to use stellar relief pitching to win going away and seal a series-clinching victory.
The Gamecocks saw four bullpen pitchers combine for five one-hit innings, rolling to a 12-5 win over the Flyers as they hit five home runs, headlined by two from Wes Clarke.
“It’s crazy. He’s feeling omnipresent right now,” Brady Allen said of Clarke. “He’s felling good in the box and putting good swings on the ball.”
Clarke’s first, a solo shot to left, tied the game in the first inning and his second on the day, a 415-foot blast to straightaway center, helped bust the game open as part of a four-run eighth.
He’d finish going 3-for-4 with five RBI, including a run-plating single, and has reached base in all but one plate appearance this year.
“He works extremely hard. He cares a great deal and he’s a talented hitter. When you put all those things together you get a really good hitter and elite player,” Mark Kingston said. “That’s what he’s developed into. I’m real happy for him because he deserves it. I can’t say I’m surprised but the level he’s playing at right now is pretty impressive.”
His offensive performance was rivaled by the bullpen, which stitched together five innings of one-run baseball, including four scoreless to end the game.
After Dayton used a four-run fifth to cut South Carolina’s lead to one, Andy Peters immediately settled things down with two no-hit innings, striking out three and preserving the lead.
“I thought that was the most important part of the game from a pitching standpoint. He got the game ball from our team,” Kingston said. “He did a really nice job stabilizing the game. Then Gilreath and Sanders did the same as well. His innings were the key innings in that game, no question."
Three pitchers—Peters (1-0), John Gilreath and Will Sanders—combined to allow one base runner in four innings (on one walk) and faced the minimum while striking out five.
It helped support starter Brannon Jordan, who had a shakier outing giving up four runs (three earned) in four-plus innings and having four strikes and walks apiece.
“The first word that comes to mind is confidence,” Peters said. “It’s confidence then trust would be the other one. After I was done and after BJ was done, seeing all the guys down there in the bullpen I was looking around and personally I was thinking to myself there’s not a single guy here who can’t get the job done in my opinion.”
The Gamecocks extended their lead with a two-run seventh, sparked by a solo shot from Brady Allen, and scored the final six runs of the game.
Two other Gamecocks hit home runs including a solo bomb from Colin Burgess and Braylen Wimmer, who hit a two-run shot to give his team a lead in the third.
“I think we’re seeing the ball very well,” said Allen, who also reached base twice via the walk. “Hitting off our pitchers
Up next: The series finale is Sunday, scheduled for noon on SEC Network Plus. Left-hander Julian Bosnic is scheduled to start for the Gamecocks opposite right-hander Cole Pletka for Dayton.
