James Hicks cruises through first start, South Carolina beats Queens

When James Hicks made his return to the mound for South Carolina, he wanted to do one thing: “Soak it all back in.”

Just four days shy of the one-year anniversary of his last start, Hicks delivered on his words. In his first start coming off Tommy John surgery, he gave the Gamecocks a great outing.

Hicks pitched five shutout innings en route to a 6-0 win over Queens Wednesday afternoon. He finished only giving up two hits and striking out five on 55 pitches. He also pitched two scoreless innings on Opening Day.

“It’s definitely been an up-and-down thing for me,” Hicks said. “There were some rough months this summer just coming in and doing the same thing every day pretty much. But these past few weeks that I’ve pitched have been everything that I’ve been thinking about this whole journey. So it just made everything worth it, coming out here and pitching well.”

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After starting out with a strikeout, Hicks allowed a hit on a misplayed ball from Braylen Wimmer. However, Wimmer quickly recovered by starting a 6-3 double play.

From there, Hicks got into a rhythm on the mound. He retired 10 of the next 12 hitters, only allowing two walks in the third. Queens wouldn’t record another hit until two-thirds of the way into the fifth inning.

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After scoring 68 runs in its first four games, South Carolina’s offense didn’t take its foot off the gas. The Gamecocks scored two runs in each of the first three innings, which was more than enough run support for Hicks.

The big blow came off the bat of Caleb Denny in the second inning. After Wimmer reached first on what should’ve been the final out of the frame, Denny capitalized on the next pitch with a two-run double.

An inning later, Gavin Casas decided to join in on the fun. He crushed a two-run homer to the opposite field to give the Gamecocks a six-run cushion. It was his team-leading fourth homer of the year.

“I knew (Queens) wanted me to ground out into a double play. So I was kind of expecting a changeup and I got the changeup, and I was able to stay back home and drive it the other way,” Casas said.

South Carolina now has 20 home runs in its first five games.

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But Casas still had more in the tank. He singled in the fifth and doubled in the seventh, falling just a triple short of the cycle. He finished the afternoon going 3-for-5 at the dish.

Once South Carolina had a big enough lead, the ball was turned over to the bullpen. Left-hander Matthew Becker made his season debut and didn’t disappoint. He pitched two hitless innings and struck out two.

“I thought that Matthew was very good. Again, I still think he can be even better than he was,” Mark Kingston said. “But it was the first time out there, and I thought he was better in the second inning than he was in the first. And he gave us two winnings, two strikeouts, no earned runs, no hits. So I mean, that’s something you can really build on.”

The Gamecocks eventually put the game out of reach in the seventh with six additional runs. Denny, who hit a two-run double earlier, mashed another big hit, this time being a three-run double. His run-scoring hit gave South Carolina its fifth straight game with 10 or more runs. The last time it accomplished this feat came back in March 1997.

“Baseball is a funny game and momentum is everything. And thankfully, we continue the momentum after having beautiful innings. But that’s just baseball,” Casas said.

Austin Williamson and Dylan Eskew pitched an inning each to finish out the game. After Hicks exited, South Carolina relievers managed to not give up a hit the rest of the way.

“It’s great to see them succeed,” Hicks said. “I mean, being around them and seeing how hard they work, you can’t help but to root for them … So it’s nice to see everybody pitch to the best of their abilities.”

Up next: No. 23 South Carolina (5-0) continues its home stand with Penn starting Friday. Game one of the series is scheduled for 4 p.m. Will Sanders (0-0, 4.50 ERA) will make his second start of the year on SEC Network Plus.

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