Could Jarvis Evans Jr. start on weekends soon? Here's what Paul Mainieri thinks

It’s hard to ignore it. Jarvis Evans Jr. has been dealing on the mound since the calendar turned from February to March. The left-hander has pitched well enough in his midweek duties to where the next step could be a promotion.

The only problem is that there’s not a spot for him on weekends. Not yet at least.

With South Carolina traveling to face No. 3 Arkansas, Evans won’t be starting in any of this weekend’s games. Things will remain the same for the Gamecocks as far as the rotation goes.

Brandon Stone will start game one, Jake McCoy will go in game two on Saturday, and Dylan Eskew will pitch the series finale on Sunday. Head coach Paul Mainieri said Evans could be available out of relief for Sunday. If he doesn’t pitch, though, he’ll start against No. 17 North Carolina on Tuesday. Depending on how the weekend goes, Mainieri hinted at potentially reevaluating where things stand.

“I’ll pitch Jarvis against North Carolina, and that’ll be a really good test for Jarvis to pitch against North Carolina, a top-ranked team,” Mainieri told GamecockCentral. “If he can do the same thing against them that he’s done against Charleston and Georgia State, I mean, not to take anything away from either of those teams. Both are really good hitting teams, but North Carolina is North Carolina.”

Ideally, Mainieri would like to see Evans continue as the fourth starter and pitch in midweek games, while the weekend starters do well against SEC lineups. But he hasn’t ruled out moving him into a weekend slot in the future. He hinted at the possibility of moving Stone back to the bullpen, which would in turn allow him to put Evans in the rotation. Though, Mainieri would be doing it with good reason.

“The only reason that I would ever take Brandon Stone out of the rotation is because he’s so valuable out of the bullpen. It wouldn’t be because he doesn’t pitch well as a starter,” he said.

“The only reason I’d ever take him out is if we thought we got a better chance to win a game with Brandon Stone coming out of the bullpen. … If we move Brandon out, it would be to move Jarvis into the weekend.”

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In his first outing as a starter this season, Stone pitched five innings against Oklahoma last Friday. The right-hander surrendered five runs on seven hits, with four of those runs coming in the first inning. Mainieri likes what he has in his bullpen currently but knows Stone can provide good innings as a long reliever if need be. However, he’ll remain in the rotation for the time being.

As for Evans, his case to become a weekend starter is clear with a trio of strong outings over the last few weeks. He got off to a bit of a shaky start at the beginning of the year before settling in with seven innings of one-run ball against The Citadel on March 5. So far this month, opponents have only scored three runs, while Evans has 18 strikeouts and five walks.

Because of this, his numbers have drastically improved. He’s now 3-0 on the year with a 3.09 ERA over 23.1 innings. Mainieri has seen Evans blossom into the pitcher he thought that he could become after bringing him in from Georgia.

“He’s got a slider now to go with his fastball and change-up,” Mainieri said. “So he couldn’t get left-handers out last year. Now he’s got that slider, and he gets left-handed hitters out, and his command is better.

“He’s always had a good change-up. Everybody knows that. That’s no secret. Again, there’s a classic example of Terry Rooney’s influence. Basically taught him how to throw a slider, and it’s really helped him immensely.”

A switch might not come immediately, especially if Evans were to pitch on Tuesday in Charlotte. The Gamecocks will face No. 1 Tennessee next weekend, and it’s unlikely he would make two starts in a week.

After that, though, South Carolina will play a couple of weekend series that begin on Thursday as opposed to Friday. That could potentially be, instead of starting the midweek, where Evans slots into the rotation. For now, it’s still a wait-and-see with what’s next. But the thought is certainly on Mainieri’s mind.

“I also know that you can never count on anything,” he said. “You just never know what’s going to happen in a season. Guys could get hurt. It changes the whole plan.”

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