Jordan dominant in rain-shortened shutout
Brannon Jordan once threw in a junior college game where it was 28 degrees and “practically snowing on the field,” so Saturday’s 49 degrees with a spritzing rain didn’t really affect him.
If it did, the junior college pitcher making his South Carolina debut didn’t show it.
Jordan dominated his way to a five-inning shutout during a rain-shortened game Sunday as the Gamecocks beat Holy Cross 5-0 to sweep the series.
“Coach (Trip) Couch made the comment that it’s nice in these conditions to have a guy pitching from Oklahoma where this was really good weather for him,” Mark Kingston said. “He didn’t know any better. That cold, that rain could have been an easy day to make excuse to where you couldn’t throw strikes and he pounded the strike zone. That’s very, very encouraging.”
Also see: Everything we learned from Saturday's win over Tennessee
It looked like Jordan’s day would be a rocky one with his first pitch of the game getting taken to left-center for a base hit before he settled down and dominated the rest of the day.
He’d allow just one more base runner the final four innings, retiring 13 straight before a one-out double in the fifth and final inning of the game.
After Brett Kerry struck out 12 Saturday, Jordan was on pace to do something similar with nine punch outs before the game was called. He wouldn’t issue a walk and of his 69 pitches, 50 were strikes.
Of the 17 batters he faced, only five saw two-ball counts with no hitter getting to three balls.
“He had really good command of a plus slider. That was a real pitch and made guys really uncomfortable,” Kingston said. “He got a lot of swings and misses on it. He was about 90 to 91 on the fastball today. He’ll be up to 94 in better conditions. You saw a guy with really good command and a really good secondary pitch.”
Also see: Instant analysis from the hoops win
Offensively the Gamecocks weren’t able to have as prolific of a day as they did the first two days where they averaged 9.5 runs on 7.5 hits.
They’d get their runs in spurts, plating four in the third inning to break the game open.
After loading the bases with two outs, Jeff Heinrich and George Callil both got hit by pitches to bring in a run while Dallas Beaver drew a four-pitch walk to plate another.
The only RBI hit of the inning came from Braylen Wimmer, who rolled an infield single to short and reached after the fielder fell down.
For Wimmer, it’s his third RBI of the opening weekend and he finishes the first three games of his college career going 4-for-9.
“It was a good weekend,” Wimmer said. “I have to get back in the cages and take ground balls and keep getting better and move forward from here.”
The Gamecocks move on now from their first opening weekend sweep since 2016 when they started 10-0 and focus now on two midweeks against Winthrop and Presbyterian (weather permitting).
They threw out three different lineups this weekend and Kingston said more of that could be coming in the future.
“Our lineup will continue to be a work in progress. As we continue to get more information on them—how they do versus lefties, versus righties—the conditions weather-wise may have had something to do with how we formulate a lineup.”
Also see: More from a crazy offseason
Player of the game: Brannon Jordan gave up just two hits in five shutout innings, striking out nine and earning the win in his South Carolina debut.
Pivotal moment: With two outs and facing a full count, Heinrich got plunked by a pitch to spark a four-run third inning to give the Gamecocks a lead.
Up next: South Carolina takes on Winthrop Tuesday at 4 p.m. in its first midweek game of the year. It will be televised on the SEC Network Plus. RHP Thomas Farr is scheduled to pitch in his Gamecock debut.
