Gamecocks pitching well heading into big week

Going into the season, South Carolina’s pitching staff was expected to be a strength of the Gamecocks’ team.

South Carolina returned two thirds of its starting rotation and the bulk of their bullpen arms from last season, and through 10 games the staff’s backed up its reputation.

Gamecock pitchers have lived up to the billing in a very small sample size, but players are not satisfied as the schedule difficultly takes an uptick this week.

“As the season progresses not only you guys but the fan base is going to see a lot of what we have in store. It’s just the beginning of the season,” Andrew Peters said. “Everyone’s going to get better; everyone’s going to take big strides. As a bullpen guy and pitcher on the team I have a lot of faith in everyone improving along the way.”

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The Gamecocks (10-0) rank 18th nationally in team ERA (2.54), sixth in hits allowed per nine innings (5.28) and second in the country averaging 13.8 strikeouts per nine innings.

Starters Thomas Farr, Brannon Jordan and Julian Bosnic lead a staff coming off back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 2015, combining to allow eight earned runs in 40.1 innings with 64 strikeouts.

Starting pitching this season—including midweek games—has combined for a 2.00 ERA and a WHIP of 1.16 and it’s trickling down to a lot of the bullpen pitchers.

“Especially for young guys like me, when you see guys like that on the mound with Farr, Jordan and especially Bos who walk around with that confidence. When they’re in the game and on that mound it’s their mound and their plate,” freshman Jack Mahoney said.

“They want to attack. If you’re coming in the game right after them you better be ready to go,” “It’s definitely contagious when you follow older guys who have been there and done that before.”

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The bullpen, meanwhile, has been shutdown through 10 games, allowing 16 earned runs in 47 innings with 70 strikeouts to 20 walks.

They have a 1.09 WHIP and have allowed just five of their inherited runners to score.

“You can’t really ask for much more from a bullpen. Those guys are really good at what they do. They know their roles and are good at it,” Farr said. “It’s nice knowing when you’re coming off the mound you’re giving the ball to someone who you don’t have to think twice about them doing their job.”

The big question is what’s next for this pitching staff as it begins one of the biggest weeks of the season to date with a midweek Wednesday night at The Citadel (6 p.m., ESPN Plus) and a road series with No. 19/20 Texas this weekend.

For the bullpen, it’s maintaining consistency, but for the starter there’s still room for growth.

Of the eight games played on the weekend this season, starters have only pitched six innings twice, both from Farr. A starter has gotten into the sixth inning two other times, both coming this weekend against Mercer with Farr (5.1 innings) and Bosnic (5.2).

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Walks have been somewhat of an issue with starters on the weekend combining to walk 25 batters.

The goal, as the Gamecocks prepare for the Bulldogs and then a Texas team averaging 6.3 runs per game and slashing .256/.369/.384 is to go deep in games.

“I think minimizing pitches. The thing you want out of your starters is they can give you six. If they do that, we consider that a great outing for our guys. For the most part they’ve been able to do that,” Mark Kingston said.

“Early on, their first couple starts, a couple of our starters didn’t quite get to that sixth inning. That’s our goal and I want that to continue to be our goal at a minimum. If they can give us eight on 90 pitches, that’s even better.”