Just how good was South Carolina's pitching this weekend? The numbers speak for themselves

It’s just the first weekend of the season. But not even Paul Mainieri could have seen this coming.

South Carolina’s pitching staff was fantastic in helping the Gamecocks sweep Sacred Heart this weekend. Fantastic is one of many adjectives you could use to describe the pitching. The point is that it exceeded everyone’s expectations, including the Gamecocks’ new head coach.

“I couldn’t have dreamt with what we saw out of those guys this weekend,” Mainieri said on Sunday.

South Carolina only allowed three runs, all of which came on Friday, on nine hits over 25 innings. Between nine pitchers who threw this weekend, they combined to strike out 45 batters and only walked four. It also helped that the defense behind them only made one error.

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Of course, you could look at this as the Gamecocks beating up a mid-major team, but Sacred Heart is coming off a season where the Pioneers won their first regular season conference championship and returned multiple top hitters.

For all the success South Carolina had on the mound, it started with the starting pitching setting the tone. Dylan Eskew, Matthew Becker, and Jake McCoy all went five innings and struck out nine batters each.

Eskew was the only starter to allow a run and plunked four batters but didn’t serve up any walks. Becker only allowed one hit and also didn’t walk any batters. McCoy walked one but he didn’t give up any hits through his five innings of work.

“Yeah, I can’t believe Dylan Eskew gave up a run. What’s wrong with him, huh?” Mainieri joked. “To be honest with you, they pitched like that last weekend in our inter-squad scrimmages. Eskew, I think, threw five shutout innings and McCoy pitched against the number one lineup and shut them out for four and a third innings.

“And yeah, who’s the other guy? I always forget that guy Becker. He’s such a pain in the neck to me. But anyway, he was awesome last week, too.”

Entering the season, many had concerns about the unknowns of South Carolina’s weekend rotation not having an SEC-type frontline starting pitcher. But while the Gamecocks may not have that right now, they could have a solid rotation if they pitch like they did against Sacred Heart.

“I think it’s in the best spot possible,” McCoy said of the rotation. “I mean, all three guys went out there and absolutely shoved. We all three are really good friends too which helps — always encouraging each other and challenging each other. So it’s been cool. I think we’re in a good spot.”

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Once the starters came out of games, the bullpen was virtually lights out. Tyler Pitzer, who pitched on Friday and Sunday, was the only arm to allow any runs, with two given up on Opening Day. But even he had a bounce-back performance, closing out Sunday’s 8-0 win with a scoreless ninth inning.

Here’s a full breakdown of how every relief pitcher performed this weekend.

Parker Marlatt: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 K, 0 BB

Ryder Garino: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 K, 0 BB

Ashton Crowther: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 K, 0 BB

Zach Russell: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 K, 0 BB

Tyler Pitzer: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 K, 3 BB

Brendan Sweeney: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 K, 0 BB

“I shouldn’t say I’m surprised,” Mainieri said. “I’ve watched the work that Terry has done with these guys from the day Terry got on campus here and it’s really been magnificent. And I think the kids are responding to him in a tremendous way.”

While Mainieri was overjoyed with how things went in his first weekend series on the job at South Carolina, he knows better than anyone that the competition will only heat up. But it’s about as good of a start as they could’ve gotten off to as a pitching staff.

“We’ve got a lot of challenges ahead of us, so we’re not going to get too crazy about our praise,” he said. “Those guys got to keep them humble and down to earth and know that they got to keep working.”

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