Ethan Petry breaks another South Carolina freshman record
Ethan Petry just notched another freshman record in what has been a historic first year at South Carolina.
A week after setting the freshman home run record, Petry picked up the program’s freshman RBI record with a two-run double against Florida Saturday.
Petry now has 64 RBI on the season, breaking Justin Smoak’s record of 63 set in 2006. Petry also broke Smoak’s home run record last week with his then-18th home run.
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The record-setting RBI knock came in the fourth inning Saturday.
The freshman phenom entered Saturday’s game hitting .426 on the season. And he has firmly supplanted himself as not only one of the best freshmen in the country by one of the best players.
He’s easily the front runner for national freshman of the year. But he can compete and make a case for SEC player of the year at the same time.
Petry and the Gamecocks have already won the series against over Florida with a run-rule 13-3 win Thursday and a dramatic 5-2 win Friday night over the No. 3 team in the country.
He played a huge role in both games, breaking things open in Thursday’s win with a bases-loaded single.
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“Look, he loves the big stage and the bright lights,” Kingston said. “Some guys get even better in those moments and he appears to be one of those guys.”
He then launched a three-run homer in the second inning Friday off of Hurston Waldrep in what proved to be the difference in that game.
“Our scouting report on him was to see the ball up,” Petry said. “I ended up seeing a splitter up and hammered it. I didn’t want to get any balls in the dirt and swing at those.”
The Gamecocks are off to one of their best starts in program history and Petry is a big reason why.
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He’s on base to break or at least contend to break most of the program’s freshman records with most set by Smoak, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Hank Small.
South Carolina won its first three series of the year before splitting two games with top-ranked LSU. The Gamecocks lost on the road at Vanderbilt before coming back home and taking the first two games.
The Gamecocks don’t have a midweek game this week but will host Auburn in a three-game series starting Friday.
