South Carolina baseball gave Roman Kimball a little less run support in his second start back from Tommy John surgery than his first.
Just a little, though.
After pounding out seven runs in the first inning last Sunday, the Gamecocks dropped six in the opening frame against Belmont and cruised to a 12-1 victory in the rubber game of the series.
"We challenged them that yesterday everything that could go wrong went wrong," Mark Kingston said. "It's how you respond to it."
A slight blip in the response, then a return to form from the first six games.
Kimball actually briefly found himself in a hole after his lead-off walk to start the game came around to score on an RBI single, but it was all Belmont (5-3) would muster against him. He upped his pitch count from 40 last week to 65 against the Bruins, doubling the inning total from two to four while cutting his walks and striking out four batters.
It was another flash of his potential, and another crucial stop on his recovery journey to start in consecutive weeks and pitch well.
"Honestly I wanted to go back out there for at least one or two more," Kimball said. "But you know, strict pith count, and just kind of building back up from that minor lat problem I had a couple weeks before the season."
His starting counterpart was a left-hander, senior Jalen Borders. It prompted Kingston to make some lineup changes, specifically taking out two left-handed hitters — Blake Jackson and Tyler Causey — to replace them with right-handed options Kennedy Jones and Ryan Bakes.
"We thought the matchup was really good," Kingston said about giving Jones the start. "He's a lifetime .400 hitter against lefties, and we just thought with them throwing a lefty today, it was the perfect time to insert him there."
It took one batter for the pay-off.
The UNC-Greensboro transfer Jones popped his first home run as a Gamecock leading off the game, a shot on to the berm in right field which erased the skinny Belmont advantage as fast as possible. South Carolina (7-1) drew six free passes from the next eight hitters, with four walks and two hit-by-pitches blowing the game wide open early.
"Honestly words can't really describe the feeling," Jones said. "I think my teammates had my back all through this process, so it wasn't really an upsetting moment for me. My teammates were always behind me; I think they got me to this today."
By the time the dust settled it was six runs on just two hits, and plenty of room for Kimball to work. Dylan Brewer continued his scorching hot start to the year with an RBI single in the drawn out first inning and a double in the third, coming around to score an RBI single Jones roped into left field.
Matthew Becker piggybacked Kimball in relief, continuing the theme of starting pitchers building back from injury. Becker threw two innings in Wednesday’s midweek win over Queens and tacked on another three scoreless Sunday with 55 pitches.
Cole Messina snapped a 1-for-10 start to the series with a two-run home run in the fifth, and then ended the weekend via the run rule with another two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth, extending the lead to a final tally of 12-1.
Just one more midweek contest for the Gamecocks — Tuesday at 4 p.m. against Gardner-Webb — is left before all eyes can officially shift to the Clemson series.
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