TJ Hopkins is 'engine' helping drive Gamecock offense

A few words have been floated out to describe TJ Hopkins and what he means to the South Carolina offense; Mark Kingston used “special”, while Jonah Bride opted to call him a “table-setter.”

Regardless of what word you want to use, Hopkins has been one of the key cogs in restarting a sputtering Gamecock offense since his injection back into the lineup the last five games.

“I’ve seen a very good baseball player that when he plays well we play well as a team,” Kingston said. “He starts our engine there at the top of the lineup. When he plays well we generally score a lot of runs.”

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Since he was inserted back into the lineup at the start of the LSU series he’s hitting .480 with three extra-base hits while driving in eight runs, including two in Friday’s 8-7 win over Vanderbilt.

After one game hitting near the bottom of the order, he was vaulted to the leadoff spot the last four games and hasn’t skipped a beat. He’s 10-for-20 with four RBI and a double hitting from the top spot.

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In total, he’s scored or driven in 13 of the team’s 48 runs the Gamecocks (25-17, 10-9 SEC) put up over their miniature winning streak.

It’s no surprise that Hopkins’ return has aided in that, but the return of Noah Campbell and Madison Stokes, who both missed significant time with injury, have helped Hopkins’ production as well.

“It’s mostly about our health. Now everyone’s back healthy. That’s the biggest thing for us: everyone’s getting strong again,” LT Tolbert said. “We had a really good offense at the beginning of the year when everybody was healthy, so I think that’s the biggest thing.”

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The Gamecocks are now over .500 in the SEC for the first time since the beginning of conference play last season and are on a four-game SEC win streak for the first time since 2016.

They’ve been able to win in different ways over the course of the last week, being able to blowout opponents or come from behind like they did against the Commodores Friday.

The five-game win streak is tied for the second-longest of the year, only behind a six-game win streak at the beginning of the season.

“We’re very confident in every facet of the game: pitching, hitting, defense,” Justin Row said. “We’re ready to go everywhere right now.”