The weather at Founders Park was a bit chilly, but the South Carolina bats were burning hot as the Gamecocks came away with a 14-3 victory over the Presbyterian Blue Hose on Wednesday night.
The Gamecocks racked up a total of 15 hits, scoring in nearly every inning they batted with the exception of just two. An eight different Gamecocks accounted for these hits including six Gamecocks with multiple base hits.
“You try to score every inning you play and we did that,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “We scored the majority of the innings today so again we just want to have an offense that just grind on you and every out we make is a tough out and when we get on bases, we can make things happen.”
South Carolina also displayed its pitching talent on Wednesday night with six different arms coming on the mound, totaling 12 strikeouts. This included Thomas Farr who recorded five strikeouts through 4.2 innings of work in his first start in over a year after battling injury leading up to the season.
Farr was scheduled to pitch Tuesday but with weather causing a cancelation, his start was bumped to Wednesday.
“Overall with the weather I thought I pitched really good,” the sophomore right-handed pitcher said. “My arm felt pretty good, a little flimsy, but overall for my first time back in a year, I felt like it was a very good step forward and very positive.”
Regularly-scheduled pitcher Andy Peters closed out the game, pitching one scoreless inning while striking out and walking one batter apiece.
The Gamecocks started the same way they did in their first two games of the season: getting on top early. Thanks to a perfect first inning from Farr, the Gamecocks jumped out to a 2-0 lead by the end of the first frame.
The South Carolina offense showed no signs of stopping offensively as they racked up half of their runs in the second and third innings alone thanks to five RBIs from four different Gamecocks.
“It’s always good to start the game with a couple guys that can get on base,” junior infielder Noah Campbell said. “That really sets the tone. It lets the other team know that we’re here to play, we’re here to get on base, we’re here to score runs.”
South Carolina wouldn’t score again until the fifth inning with another multi-run frame in response to Blue Hose freshman first baseman Kyle Merkle’s two-run homer in the top frame of the inning.
The four-run fifth for the Gamecocks (4-0) was caused in part because of Campbell’s two-RBI triple to begin the string of hits in the inning.
South Carolina would then hit cruise control the rest of the way with the Gamecocks’ lone run in the final four inning coming from an RBI single from sophomore outfielder Brady Allen in the seventh.
Player of the game: Campbell racked up four RBIs on two hits in Wednesday night’s win over Presbyterian, including a two-RBI single in the second inning that helped set the tone the rest of the way.
Pivotal Moment: While there were a lot of highlight-worthy moments offensively, one that sticks out on defense is senior right-handed pitcher Graham Lawson’s help in the sixth with bases loaded with one out to get the final two outs and hold the Blue Hose to just one run in the inning.
Up next: The Gamecocks will now focus their attention to the Northwestern Wildcats for this week’s weekend series starting on Friday afternoon at Founders Park. This game can be streamed on the SEC Network Plus.
