As the tunes of the Hollies’ “Long Cool Woman” slowly faded and Carmen Mlodzinski dug his cleats into the dirt, he paused and took a deep breath.
Before he took his next step, which would effectively end his long, almost year-long journey back from injury, he flashed a quick smile, almost like he was savoring this small, brief moment.
His first pitch wasn’t a shocker—a fastball—but as the numbers on the scoreboard lit up, so did a few eyes in the stands: 97.
What happened after that pitch was seven innings of dominance as Mlodzinski turned in a career outing as he and the newcomers paced the Gamecocks to a 10-0 Opening Day win over Holy Cross.
“Trusting my fastball is something I’ve grown on the past year and being able to trust the movement and trust the defense behind you that they’re going to make good plays," Mlodzinski said. "They did today. Moving on from last year is being able to trust it like I did today.”
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His start Friday, the Gamecocks' first opening day shutout win since 2009, put behind him a subpar sophomore season, which was cut short three starts in thanks to a foot injury against Clemson, and validated most of the preseason hype that was built around the potential first-rounder this offseason.
He’d tie a career high with seven shutout innings, scattering six hits and striking out three to just one walk.
It was his longest scoreless outing of his career with the second-closest being a five-inning shutout appearance against the Citadel his freshman season.
Despite touching 96 and 97 miles per hour early and sitting 93 to 94 later in the game, the biggest sign of encouragement was of the 87 pitches he threw, 63 were strikes.
“The most encouraging thing was we asked for him to pitch efficient and go deep into a game. He did that,” Mark Kingston said. “That’s what we saw from Carmen since he got back from the Cape.”
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But it wasn't all Mlodzinski, who pitched with the lead in every inning except the first after the Gamecocks came out of the gates firing with a six-run first.
Bryant Bowen started the scoring, launching a one-out home run to left-center in his first at-bat at South Carolina and in his first-career opening day start after playing his first four seasons at Southern Mississippi. He’d finish going 1-for-3 with a walk mixed in as well.
“I’ll start off with being able to see these elite arms we have in spring camp, seeing 88 was a nice pitch to swing at,” he said. “I was really locked in. To think after five years of college baseball, finally getting to start opening day was the icing on the cake. It was an awesome feeling.”
The Gamecocks got two more RBI hits in the inning from Dallas Beaver, another graduate transfer, and George Callil before tacking on three more in the sixth.
Andrew Eyster, after homering in the second inning, drew a bases loaded walk to plate a run before Braylen Wimmer laced a two-run single to right field for his first collegiate hit.
“I remember watching them and knew this was the team I wanted to play for growing up. Finally getting to do that—there was obviously some nervousness there but after making a few plays and settling down—it was a great feeling.”
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Wimmer, a true freshman, made his first career start Friday, anchoring second base and finishing going 1-for-3 and got on base twice.
“He showed a very low pulse. When I told him he was going to start today there was very little reaction. He just said, ‘All right. Good,”’ “His defense is what kind of won us over and gave him the edge on getting the start tonight. He showed you everything we’ve been seeing all spring.”
The Gamecocks drew eight walks to pair with six hits, which is an encouraging sign for a South Carolina offense trying to revamp itself after last season.
They’d also get big contributions from Graham Lawson, who pitched a perfect inning and struck out the side in his only inning as well.
“He’s a guy where the velocity’s been there and the break on the slider has been there. It’s just a matter of getting it in the zone consistently. He did that tonight. I think he was real happy to not face our offense,” Kingston said. “Our offense has been hitting him around a little bit. People may wonder why we got him in the game at 10-0; we wanted to get him confidence. He had been wanting to get out there in a real game against a real opponent and we thought it was a good day to get him out there and get him some confidence.”
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Player of the game: Carmen Mlodzinski looked like the ace of the Gamecock staff, putting together seven shutout innings on just 87 pitches while striking out three to just one walk.
Pivotal moment: After giving up a two-out single in the first, Mlodzinski got a sharp shot back to the mound that he was able to knock down and get to first to end the inning. South Carolina scored six runs the following half inning and it was never close from there.
Up next: Game two of the series is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday with Brett Kerry scheduled to pitch for the Gamecocks. It will be available on SEC Network Plus.
