Saturday night’s players-only post-game meeting produced the desired result for South Carolina (22-13 overall, 8-7 SEC) in a must-win game: 6-1 victory over Mississippi State on Easter Sunday in which the Gamecocks scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth.
Now USC must take the next step – win an SEC series. This past weekend’s three-game set against the Bulldogs at Founders Park marked the Gamecocks’ third straight conference series setback. South Carolina’s last series win came over Alabama on the second weekend (March 24-26) of SEC play.
But the conference slate doesn’t get any easier with road trips to Florida and LSU sandwiching a home series against SEC East-leading Kentucky (10-5) over the next three weeks.
Frustrating close losses defined the first half of USC’s SEC schedule. With the sixth weekend of conference play on the horizon, the Gamecocks are just 3-6 in conference games decided by two runs or less, 3-7 in games decided by 3 runs or less. How competitive is the SEC? Ten of South Carolina’s first 15 conference games have been decided by three runs or less
Overall, USC is just 8-10 in games decided by two or fewer runs, but 10-1 in games decided by 5 runs or more (5-0 in SEC).
“We still have half of our SEC season ahead of us,” USC coach Chad Holbrook said Monday on 107.5 FM The Game. “No one is running away and hiding from us right now. We feel like we control our own destiny. If we play our best baseball, we know we’re going to be a difficult team to beat. We’re looking forward to getting back onto the field (Tuesday) night.”
After a slow start at the plate (he was batting just .192 with five hits in 26 at-bats when SEC play started March 17), freshman Carlos Cortes has heated up over the past few weeks. He has 17 hits in his last 49 at-bats (.347) and has raised his batting average to .293 (22-75) with four homers and 17 RBI.
Three of his homers came this past weekend in the series loss to Mississippi State, including two on Saturday when he drove in all four Gamecock runs with a pair of 2-run homers. Over the past 10 games, Cortes has scored or driven in 24 of the 50 runs the Gamecocks 50 scored.
Sunday, Cortes’ game-tying solo homer (they trailed 1-0 at the time) ignited the USC offense.
“Carlos is just getting more comfortable and confident,” Holbrook said. “He’s relaxed a little bit. Some our kids are putting a lot of pressure on themselves to perform and Carlos was like that earlier in the season. Now he’s just taking a deep breath and relaxing. He has a lot of confidence in himself that he knows he has hit his whole life and this should be no different. He is coming into his own right now.”
Besides Cortes swinging a hot bat, last week also marked the return of hard-throwing closer Tyler Johnson to the mound following a five-week absence. He pitched one inning in the loss to North Carolina and the top of the ninth in Sunday’s 6-1 win.
“He gives our team a little more confidence,” Holbrook said. “They know the game is in our hands if we get the ball to Tyler with a lead. Overall, he gives our team much more confidence than we’ve had the previous couple of weeks.”
NOTES:
-- USC announced Monday afternoon freshman Cody Morris (2-1, 3.12 ERA in 17.1 IP) will start Tuesday’s non-conference tilt vs. Davidson at Founder’s Park. It will be Morris’ sixth start of the season. He has 22 strikeouts and only four walks, and opponents are batting .219 against him.
-- Despite a hard luck loss on Friday night in which he retired 19 straight Miss. State hitters at one point, Jr. RHP Clarke Schmidt still possesses impressive statistics: 4-1 record with 1.31 ERA in 55.0 innings pitched over eight starts. He has 68 strikeouts to 15 walks, a K-to-BB ratio of better than 4-to-1. Opponents are batting .190 against Schmidt, who ranks third in the SEC in ERA and opposing batting average as well as fourth in strikeouts. Schmidt has 37 strikeouts in 29.0 conference innings with conference opponents batting .182 against him. His 1.55 ERA in conference play is third-best in the league. Schmidt is one of 40 players nationally named to USA Baseball’s Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List.
-- The Gamecocks are 13-3 when not committing an error this season, and ranks third in the SEC in fielding percentage (.978).
-- The Gamecocks rank second in the SEC in opposing batting average (.222), and third in ERA (3.17) and strikeouts (357). South Carolina’s 2.77 ERA in SEC games leads the conference. The Gamecocks have 150 strikeouts in 139.2 innings of SEC play. Mississippi State was the SEC’s top hitting team coming into last weekend, but the Bulldogs were held to a .216 batting average. All thee USC starters had quality starts.
-- Holbrook on USC’s renewed energy in the dugout Sunday following the players-only meeting Saturday night: “They seemed like a closer knit group for some reason. They had a meeting of the minds and came together a little bit after the frustration of losing so many close games. Some of the leaders of our team took it upon themselves to get the guys together. Maybe they had enough of (losing close games) or feeling sorry for themselves. They picked themselves off the mat to do something about it.”
-- Like Cortes, Madison Stokes also got off to a slow start at the plate. He has fanned 30 times in1 77 AB. Sunday, he had 3 hits and 3 RBI and is batting .345 (10-29) in the last 10 games. Prior to his hot stretch, he was batting just .195 (17-87). “He’s one that has put an enormous amount of pressure on himself,” Holbrook said. “He got off to a slow start and it snowballed on him a little bit. He has started to click.”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS (1-3):
April 11 vs. North Carolina (at Charlotte), L 20-5
April 14 vs. Mississippi State, L 7-4
April 15 vs. Mississippi State, L 5-4
April 16 vs. Mississippi State, W 6-1
THIS WEEK’S SCHEDULE:
Tue. vs. Davidson, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
Thu. at Florida, 7:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Fri. at Florida, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
Sat. at Florida, Noon (ESPN2)
(All times Eastern)
SEC EAST STANDINGS (As of April 17)
Kentucky 10-5
South Carolina 8-7
Florida 8-7
Vanderbilt 7-8
Missouri 7-8
Georgia 4-11
Tennessee 4-11
UPCOMING SEC SCHEDULE (April 20-23)
South Carolina at Florida (Thu-Sat)
Alabama at Mississippi State (Thu-Sat)
Tennessee at Texas A&M
LSU at Kentucky
Vanderbilt at Georgia
Arkansas at Auburn
Missouri at Ole Miss
(All 3-game series)
SEC CONFERENCE WINS LADDER:
11: Arkansas
10: Kentucky, Auburn, Miss. State
9: LSU
8: South Carolina, Florida, Texas A&M
7: Missouri, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss
6: None
5: None
4: Georgia, Tennessee
3: None
2: Alabama
