Braylen Wimmer sparks South Carolina in pivotal winners bracket game

Jack Mahoney’s 1-1 pitch ran inside to NC State’s Eli Serrano. He did his job in jamming him. But he was able to fist it off his bat and loft into the South Carolina outfield.

Serrano swung through the pitch and blooped it in the air. It looked like it might find some open grass for a hit. But Braylen Wimmer had other ideas.

Wimmer got on his horse, hustling towards the ball. Every second was precious. One misstep and it’d be a hit.

At the last second, he jumped into the air and made a diving, over the shoulder grab, falling face first into the outfield grass. Cheers began growing as he came to his feet with the ball in his glove.

“I think it changes the whole complexion of the game, right?” Mahoney said. “King calls him octopus out there and we laugh about it but it’s true. It feels like that whole left side of the infield’s locked down when Wimmer’s out there.”

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Roughly 10 minutes later, Wimmer stepped up to bat with a runner on first. On an 0-1 pitch, he lifted the ball high into the air.

It looked good off the bat but also might not get out. But as NC State centerfielder Trevor Candelaria scaled the wall, it was clear he had no chance of catching it.

The ball traveled 380 feet and landed in the visitor’s bullpen. Wimmer had done it again. His third-inning two-run homer was the spark plug to a South Carolina 6-3 win over NC State Saturday night.

“We talk about it all the time, who’s going to be the first man through the door? Who’s going to breach through the door and get through there to kind of show the rest of the guys the way? Tonight, he was the first guy,” Mark Kingston said.

“(Will) McGillis had a great at-bat to get on base there with two outs, worked a walk. And then Wimmer had the big blow, and then that kind of, I think, took a little bit of the tension out of the dugout and said, ‘Hey, this could be our day again.'”

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And now the Gamecocks will head into Sunday trying to advance to a Super Regional with one of their biggest leaders back out there.

Wimmer finished 1-for-3 at the plate with two RBI and two walks on Saturday. So far in the NCAA Tournament, he’s 2-for-7 with three RBI and three walks.

It was nothing new for Wimmer to be impactful with both his bat and glove. In his first full season as a shortstop, he’s been solid and continued to make highlight plays. His nine errors might be glaring but he owns a .947 fielding percentage.

At the plate, he’s been consistent as ever. Coming into this weekend, Wimmer was hitting .299/.419/.573 (157 at-bats) with 36 RBI, 25 walks and 37 strikeouts at shortstop.

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When he’s out in the field, the Gamecocks are a much better team. They are 36-7 with him as the starting shortstop. If he’s just in the lineup, they’re equally as good at 39-14.

But when Wimmer hasn’t been playing, South Carolina’s play hasn’t been so sharp. He pulled his hamstring in an April 28 game against Auburn and missed seven games, five of which were SEC matchups. Over that stretch, the Gamecocks went 2-5.

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When he made his return against Arkansas on May 12, he slotted in at designated hitter. And that’s where he would be plugged the rest of the regular season.

He slashed .250/289/.361 with four runs scored, three RBI, 12 strikeouts and two walks in 36 at-bats. He hit .281/303/.406 with three RBI in SEC play. But it was clear the Gamecocks would need him back at shortstop not only for his play but also his leadership.

“It’s physical. The guys like him being out there in the middle. You saw the defensive play he made. He just brings so many things to the table for us,” Kingston said about Wimmer’s leadership. “We’re just a better team overall when he’s out there. It’s pretty clear.”

So when Wimmer returned to his natural position for the first time since the injury on Friday, it was a sigh of relief.

“We needed to lose maybe some battles if necessary to win the war, hopefully at the end. So Wimmer didn’t play shortstop for a long time in hopes that we could get him back for this,” Kingston said.

“Now that he’s back, Michael’s (Braswell) playing really well at second base, (Talmadge) LeCroy is healthy again. He missed a lot of action with his hamstring. This is what we look like when we’re healthy — bottom line. And we’re really good and we’re close to full strength. We’re pretty darn good.”

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