How one tweak made Ethan Petry a 'factor' for South Carolina

Mark Kingston was in the South Carolina batting cages before Sunday’s game against UMass Lowell. One of the scouts in there, watching hitters take hacks, mentioned how much he and other teams loved Ethan Petry before the MLB Draft. 

Kingston smiled and responded with a, “Well you’re going to get to see him today because we put him in the starting lineup.”

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A month ago, the Gamecocks might not have believed you if you said Petry would be starting opening weekend, but mental and physical tweaks over the last few weeks have led to Petry being a bright spot in the early goings of the season. 

“Preseason this year I got hit by a truck. I mean I couldn’t buy a hit. I worked with Monte (Lee) and (Mike) Current and (Scott) Wingo and Kingston,” Petry said. “We all figured out what was wrong. It was all mental. Mentally I became stronger. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and I’m out here to have fun. There ain’t nothing better than this.”

Petry was a highly-regarded player coming out of Florida–No. 31 by PerfectGame–who was on professional radars before opting to enroll at South Carolina. 

The freshman fall was similar to most highly-touted, young hitters with a mix of typical struggles against a good pitching staff while showing flashes of that potential. 

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Things changed, though, when Petry came back to campus in January. Petry’s average was paltry, and with each early scrimmage, a starting spot was slowly slipping away. 

That’s when he met with the coaches and tweaked his swing, changing his motion to where he’s more downhill to the ball instead of uphill to it. The change cut down on his whiff rate, and production slowly ramped up.

“Seeing high velocity, I was just trying to yank the ball out,” he said. “I finally worked with Monte to work downhill to the ball instead of uphill. It’s worked really well for me. It’s worked really well.” 

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound utility player entered the season with his arrow pointing up and a chance to chisel out a role on Opening Weekend. After two hard-hit singles in two games off the bench, Kingston slid him into the starting lineup and Petry hasn’t left. 

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He’s started the last three games in three spots–designated hitter, right field and third base–while hitting 6-for-10 with five runs scored, six RBI and three homers.

And now Kingston is saying Petry is going to be a “factor” this season for the Gamecocks.

“I swear, two weeks ago the light went on for him. You can see it BP, you could see it in the cages. You could see it with the swings he was taking on the field in batting practice,” Kingston said. “The first at-bat, you could just see it coming. Sometimes you look at the data and sometimes you just trust your eyes. And the eyes were saying, ‘Something’s happening here.’”

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Petry’s emergence has helped the Gamecocks (5-0) also club teams this season. The offense is slashing .374/.510/.776 while Petry’s bat at the bottom helped lift the bottom of that order. 

They’ll also need more of that as Penn comes to town to start a three-game series starting Friday.

“He’s a great player. He works extremely hard and he’s a big-time team guy and he just wants to win. You see what he can do for our lineup,” Kingston said. “He can really stretch our lineup. When you have that kind of hitter in the eight-hole it gives you optimism.” 

Series details

Who: South Carolina (5-0) vs. Penn (0-0)

Where: Founders Park (Capacity: 8,242)

Game times: Friday, 4 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m.; Sunday, 1:30 p.m.

How to watch/listen: SEC Network Plus/107.5 FM

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Projected pitching matchups (Penn stats from 2022)

Friday: RHP Will Sanders (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. LHP Owen Coady (7-1, 2.80 ERA)

Saturday: RHP Noah Hall (1-0, 1.69 ERA) vs. RHP Cole Zaffiro (2-1, 4.57 ERA)

Sunday: RHP Jack Mahoney (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Ryan Dromboski (0-0, 5.40 ERA) 

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