Not all box scores are created equally. In Friday night’s series opener against Oklahoma, South Carolina baseball picked up 12 hits, but only one extra base hit in an 8-5 loss.
On Saturday it had a similar looking 14 hits, but two left the ballpark and another three went for extra bases in a 11-5 series-evening victory.
The win gets the Gameoccks on the board in SEC play, snaps a four-game losing streak against power four conference opponents dating back to the Clemson series and sets up a rubber match in Sunday’s 1:30 p.m. first pitch.
“Obviously getting our first SEC win of the year is a big deal,” Paul Mainieri said. “I told you after the game yesterday even though we lost, I thought our hitters really competed hard against a great pitcher and didn’t back down. They just carried it into today.”
Maineiri made two noticeable changes at the top of his lineup. First he slotted Dalton Mashore back into the No. 2 hole, and after Ethan Petry’s usual No. 3 spot, he switched up Kennedy Jones and KJ Scobey. Last night Jones grounded into two double plays while Scobey had three hits, and the result was Scobey sliding into the clean-up spot.
It paid off for everyone.
“Scobey’s just been so hot,” Mainieri said. “I thought putting him behind Petry covered Petry a little bit more, and it took a little pressure off of Kennedy for today as well.”
Scobey and Jones both crushed solo home runs off Oklahoma (16-2, 1-1 SEC) starter Malachi Witherspoon, shots way out to left field which traveled 439 and 448 feet respectively. Mashore had arguably the biggest hit of the game, a bases loaded knock to left field in the fourth inning which broke a 3-3 tie and gave South Carolina (16-4, 1-1 SEC) a lead it never relinquished.
Jones finished the game with three hits and another RBI knock when he lined a double down the left field line in the eighth with a man aboard, and Scobey’s lead-off walk in the fifth inning opened the door for a four-run frame.
“It felt amazing after struggling a little bit,” Jones said. “It’s baseball. As long as you show up every day and forget about the other days, you’re always good to go.”
The offensive onslaught all happened after Jake McCoy was not quite dominant in his first start of conference play, but solid enough to muscle through five innings. McCoy received two huge boosts from his catcher Talmadge LeCroy in the first three innings when the senior backstop threw out his first two runners of the season on the bases, but Oklahoma maintained steady traffic on the bases.
Jaxon Willits hit a two-run home run out to left to make it 3-1 Sooners in the third inning, and Oklahoma put at least one runner on base in all but one of the five innings McCoy pitched.
He made some big pitches when he needed to, though.
McCoy stranded two runners in the second inning with back-to-back strikeouts. Got some help from a diving Nathan Hall catch to end a third inning threat and on his 104th and final pitch of the night, induced a chopper to short with the tying run on third base to complete the fifth.
“They were super scrappy,” McCoy said about Oklahoma’s lineup. “They kept finding ways to get on base. That was definitely the hardest battle of my collegiate career, probably my entire career. I had to go out there and fight every single inning, but I just powered through.”
Tyler Pitzer took over for McCoy and was, in a nutshell, effectively wild. He walked five in four innings, but struck out six, did not surrender a hit and gave South Carolina’s bullpen badly needed length by carrying the game all the way to the finish line.
The Gamecocks enter tomorrow’s crucial series decider with most of their high leverage relievers available — Mainieri even said Matthew Becker should be ready to go again after throwing an inning Friday — and with the offense coming off its best performance of the season.
Dylan Eskew gets the ball at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow against Oklahoma’s Cam Johnson, with a successful opening series at stake.
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