Entering the season, South Carolina expected its pitching depth to be one of its strong suits and Tuesday the Gamecocks showed why.
South Carolina used four pitchers and rode them to a three-hit shutout of Appalachian State, 2-0, on Tuesday, giving the Gamecocks a 9-3 record in midweeks this season.
“I think the key to midweek games is pitching depth. When you have good pitching depth like we do it allows you to go out on a Tuesday night and limit the team to runs,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “It’s a testament to the team understanding every game is important.”
Starter CJ Weins, set the tone early by striking out the side in the first en route to what turned into a career night for him.
Making his second-career start, Weins (1-0, 1.93 ERA) notched new career highs in innings pitched and strikeouts with four hitless innings where he allowed just three base runners—two walks and a hit batter—while punching out six for his first-career win.
“What it usually is. I can tell if my breaking ball is going to the same pocket and if my fastball is working on both sides of the plate,” Weins said. “If those cues are on it can kind of dictate what I can do.”
With two outs in the first, Wes Clarke hammered his way into history, launching home run No. 20 on the year, putting him in some elite company.
He’s now just the ninth different Gamecock in program history to hit 20 homers in a single season.
The only other hitters to do it were Yaron Peters, Nick Ebert, Joe Dantin, Tripp Kelly, Tim Whittaker and Derick Urquart. Justin Smoak and Steve Pearce both did it twice in their careers.
“It’s really awesome. I worked very hard and that was my goal at the beginning of the year—20—and I feel like I have more in me,” he said. “It feels great to be with those guys and swinging it the way I am. I plan on continuing it the rest of the year and through postseason.”
For most of the game it was Clarke’s homer proving to be the difference before Joe Satterfield hustled out a double down the left field line in the fifth, moved to third on a groundout and came around to score on a Brady Allen sac fly.
The Gamecock offense only had four hits but walked three times to just six strikeouts.
“I thought we hit better than what the stats reflected. The wind held up a bunch of balls today I think would normally have been home runs,” Kingston said. “I thought we swung the bats better than the stats reflect, but the pitching was the name of the game today for us.”
Three different relievers combined to allow just three hits over the final five innings of the game, striking out five to no walks.
After John Gilreath and Daniel Lloyd tossed four combined scoreless, Will Sanders—now in a bullpen role with Brett Kerry in the weekend rotation—stitched a perfect nine-pitch ninth inning for his first career save and second straight game where he’s come in for the final inning.
“Will Sanders out of the bullpen has been really, really good all year for us. Now that he’s back in that role he’s been electric,” Kingston said. “Will makes us feel a little bit better that it’s another weapon to go along with the other guys when we need outs late in the game.”
