From a frigid Founders Park, Nathan Hall was the only man feeling the heat.
South Carolina baseball’s red hot lead-off hitter continued his scorching start to the season with a four-hit day, bookending the afternoon with clutch hits to help South Carolina take care of Queens 7-2 in its first home midweek game of the season.
“If you get out on the field it’s a good day,” Paul Mainieri said. “Whether it’s cold, hot, windy, wet, dry, it doesn’t matter. You prepare them for days like this, but today was a test. I don’t care how much you put it out of your mind. It was cold, it was wet, it was windy. Those were as difficult of conditions as you can possibly play.
“I thought they handled it tremendously tonight. I really think we played a solid game.”
First pitch temperature was 36 degrees and the wind chill dipped into the 20s before the night ended, making it clear right from the jump this would not be a day for the offenses. With wind whipping in from center field, the flag poles ironed out towards home plate and a light but constant drizzle falling all night, it was more a battle of manufacturing runs than anything.
South Carolina (5-0) pounded out 11 hits, but only two extra base hits.
One of those led off the bottom of the first though, when Hall picked up where he left off yesterday with a double in the right-center field gap. He advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Ethan Petry’s RBI single, a 1-0 lead that remained untouched until the sixth inning.
“I’m just trying to keep the same thing the same thing,” Hall said. “To go about my routine and do everything I can to help the team win.”
Jackson Soucie and Ryder Garino started the game with a combined six shutout innings, only allowing two hits between them. Soucie’s Gamecock debut went off nearly without a hitch, only having to pitch around one soft double and a walk. The left-handed JUCO transfer did not throw hard — his fastball topped out around 90 MPH — but he located his pitches well and kept the Queens (2-2) hitters off-balanced.
Garino added to his impressive work last Saturday with another five strikeouts, giving him nine punchouts against just one walk and one hit allowed in the first five innings of his collegiate career.
“I’m feeling good,” Garino said. “Everything I’ve worked up to with Coach Rooney, Coach Mainieri, all of our coaches, our whole bullpen is feeling good and we’re ready to continue the season.”
A Kennedy Jones hustle double started a two-run rally in the sixth inning, with a Henry Kaczmar sacrifice fly and a KJ Scobey RBI groundout extending the lead to three. But as has been the case in three of the five wins this season, there was a bump. Queens put two runs on the board in the eighth, cashing in two free passes from Ashton Crowther to make it a one-run game.
Cold weather, a nearly empty stadium and a suddenly threatening situation. But just as it did in a tight spot yesterday, South Carolina’s offense woke up. The Gamecocks pounded out four runs on three hits in the eighth inning to secure the win, keyed by RBI singles from Hall and Petry.
“The more you win these close games when you’re tested, the more your confidence grows,” Mainieri said. “You have to have confidence to begin with, but the more you do it, the more your confidence grows and you start to believe when you get to the ends of the games that you’re going to find a way to get it done.”
South Carolina will open its second series of the season on Friday withi a 4 p.m. first pitch against Milwaukee.
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