Photos: South Carolina opens season with a bang

Will McGillis hit two homeruns while Carson Hornung collected five RBIs as South Carolina rolled in the 2023 season opener.

Will Sanders pitched four innings, giving up two earned runs while James Hicks picked up the win pitching two scoreless innings, striking out two.

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Braylen Wimmer spoke earlier in the week about South Carolina wanting to be a grind-it-out, tough offense top to bottom in 2023. 

It’s only one game, but certainly the Gamecocks took a step in the right direction Friday. 

The Gamecocks (1-0) exploded for 20 runs, the most since 2016 and most on Opening Day since 2008, in a 17-run drubbing of UMass Lowell.

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“That was a glimpse of it, for sure. It was a bodacious day,” Braylen Wimmer said. We have to keep building on it and carry it over.” 

Wimmer was one of those guys who was a catalyst for this South Carolina offense, becoming the first Gamecock since 2016 (Gene Cone) to pick up five hits in a game. 

The Gamecocks’ shortstop finished a perfect 5-for-5 with a home run and two RBI, one of five players with multi-hit days and multi-RBI days. 

Seven of South Carolina’s nine starters picked up at least one hit in the 20-3 win.

“That’s the word: contagious. Hitting is very contagious,” Wimmer said. “When you start like that and get on a roll it’s a good sign and everyone starts to feel it.”

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After a quiet first inning, South Carolina exploded for 18 runs over five innings, scoring multiple runs in all but one of those. The Gamecocks walked more than they struck out with four different players hitting home runs. 

Will McGillis, in his debut with the program, went 2-for-3 with a pair of home runs as well. 

“Obviously I saw the ball well today, like a lot of guys. Just when you start feeling good in baseball you start feeling cattywampus,” he said. “So you have to play the game the same way and have confidence no matter how the results go.”

The offense picked up Will Sanders, who only gave up a pair of runs but wasn’t efficient in just four innings of work. He gave up a run in the second and third innings, scattering three hits and a walk. The right-hander struck out three while hitting a pair of batters in a 75-pitch outing. 

“He was just not very sharp. He’s behind because he didn’t pitch last summer and didn’t pitch in the fall. He’s a little bit behind where he should be right now. We don’t worry about will at all. He’s as talented as it gets and works as hard as it gets,” Mark Kingston said.

“He’s still working through some things because most of our other pitchers pitched through the summer and the fall and have more reps under their belt the last eight months. Will will be just fine, we’re sure of that.” 

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But a ballyhooed Gamecocks pitching staff still looked the part. It only gave up four hits total with eight strikeouts to just two walks. 

South Carolina’s bullpen gave up just one run on one hit over five innings, headlined by two perfect innings from James Hicks (1-0, 0.00 ERA) in his first outing back from Tommy John surgery. 

He struck out two and 17 of his 25 pitches were strikes. 

“He commanded the zone and has a tough fastball to square up,” Kingston said. “He’s nowhere near where he will be. We may not see the best Will Sanders or James hicks for a little while. But James was really good tonight. It was great to see that command, great to see the fastball get under their barrels. He’s going to be a valuable guy for us.” 

Up next: Game two of the series is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Noah Hall will start for the Gamecocks with the game streamed on the SEC Network Plus. 

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