Gamecocks complete perfect opening homestand with 11-3 win
In his first career high-leverage situation, Trey Wheeler came up big for South Carolina.
The freshman left-handed relief pitcher faced two batters against Umass-Lowell on opening weekend, but had not pitched since then when he was summoned to put out a seventh inning fire. South Carolina’s 4-0 lead against North Carolina A&T was down to 4-3, and the tying run was on second base with one out after Luke Brown’s two-run double.
Wheeler picked up his first career strikeout, ended the inning on a flyout to left and watched on as South Carolina plated two runs in the bottom of the inning and won 11-3 to finish out a perfect homestand.
"I don't really care what the situation is," Wheeler said. "I'm just going out there to suffocate the offense on the opposing side."
Wheeler was one of six South Carolina (9-0) pitchers who appeared in a full staff day for the team as Mark Kingston tried to get as many arms as possible some work with only one midweek game this week. James Hicks started the game with two efficient innings, and Eli Jones carried the middle innings by retiring nine straight batters without the ball ever leaving the infield. South Carolina’s entire staff was in control, facing the minimum number of batters through the first six innings and only allowing baserunners on two walks, both quickly erased by pickoff moves.
"He had really good command tonight of all of his pitches," Kingston said about Jones. "He kept them off-balanced. The stuff was pretty good, and I think the fastball was up to 93 [MPH]. Again he had really good command; no hits, no walks. I was very happy with how he looked tonight."
Offensively it was a much more efficient for the Gamecocks. After stranding 19 runners on base and needing two late home runs to win in the series finale against Penn, Kingston’s team found some different ways to score. It did start with a home run by new lead-off hitter Will McGillis — a shot out to right field that snuck over the wall with the aid of some strong early wind — but small ball ruled the rest of the day.
South Carolina cashed in a Braylen Wimmer walk for a second first inning run after Wimmer stole second crossed on a Gavin Casas RBI single. More walks aided a third inning rally. Once again Wimmer started the inning with one, Casas had another with two outs and that kept the inning alive for Ethan Petry, who tagged a two-strike base hit to center field to plate Wimmer. Casas’ second RBI single of the day made it 4-0, which was where things stood until the seventh inning trouble.
North Carolina A&T (3-5) did not record a hit until the seventh inning, but ripped off four in a stretch of five batters off Nick Proctor to pull within a run. Proctor struggled to locate his curveball, and the Aggies took advantage nearly enough to get all the way back to square one.
But Wheeler shut the door, and sucked the momentum away from North Carolina A&T. The offense drew six free passes over the final two offensive innings against an exhausted pitching staff and cashed in to bust the game open. A Petry sacrifice fly and a perfectly executed Talmadge LeCroy squeeze bunt added seventh inning insurance, and Cole Messina issued the knockout punch with a two-RBI double in the eighth.
"I thought Will [McGillis] gave us a decent look there at the top of the order," Kingston said about his lineup. "Obviously Wim hitting in the two hole, he's very comfortable there so I don't see any reason to mess with that. Denny in the three the same, and really Cole in the four the same. We've been experimenting a little bit in that lead-off spot, and I kind of looked the look of Will up there tonight."
South Carolina outscored its opponents 105-20 over the opening homestand and never trailed in six of the wins, setting the stage for the biggest series of the season to date so far with the annual rivalry weekend against Clemson starting Friday night on the road at 6 p.m.
"The intensity is there, but we know it's about to ramp up really quick," Jones said. "Obviously Clemson is a really good ballclub, big rivalry, but we're ready for it. We're ready to play anyone who is ready to come face us."