South Carolina baseball notes and observations: Oct. 26 vs. Air Force Falcons
On Saturday, South Carolina baseball coach Paul Mainieri and his Gamecocks welcomed the Air Force Falcons to the newly-named Ray Tanner Field at Founders Park. Coach Mainieri led the Falcons from 1989-1994, but Saturday’s scrimmage was his first time competing against another team as the headman in Columbia.
As far as fall scrimmages go, South Carolina baseball fans have to be satisfied with what happened at Ray Tanner Field. An 18-3 shellacking took a little over 5 hours (it was 14 innings), and the Gamecocks dominated virtually the whole way.
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Here are some notes and observations from the day:
— On Saturday, Eli Jerzembeck got the start on the mound for the Gamecocks. Nathan Hall led off and played CF, and Henry Kaczmar followed him and started at SS. Then, Ethan Petry was in the 3-spot, playing 3B. Hitting cleanup and catching, Talmadge LeCroy was next. Will Tippett (1B), Kennedy Jones (LF), Dalton Mashore (RF), Cayden Gaskin (2B), Nolan Nawrocki (DH), and Blake Jackson (DH) rounded out the lineup. (Yes, that is ten hitters in the lineup).
— Jerzembeck looked healthy and strong. The redshirt sophomore routinely hit 93-94 mph with his fastball and wasn’t afraid of his off-speed. However, he lost his control during his 2nd inning on the mound.
— The Carolina offense was aggressive early. They weren’t overswinging, though, as they found a lot of barrels with smooth contact.
— Jake McCoy struggled with his command early but found his curveball to strike out the side in the 3rd inning. Jarvis Evans also worked around a walk to strike out the side in the 4th. Ashton Crowther, though, struck out the side in the 8th without allowing a base runner.
— Dalton Mashore hit several balls hard in this scrimmage, including his 5th-inning home run. Talmadge LeCroy handled the stick well again in this one with two hits. Ethan Petry finished with four hits. Jase Woita had the hardest-hit ball of the day, an opposite-field bomb that nearly cleared the bullpen.
— Cayden Gaskin showed off his wheels on Saturday, too. He hit a triple on a ball in the gap that most players would have had to stop at second. He made Air Force pitchers nervous when he was on base, too. Jordan Carrion was the only Gamecock to steal a base during the scrimmage. However, USC successfully attempted a hit-and-run and had several other aggressive on-base moments.
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— During his one-inning appearance, Dylan Eskew did what he does well: he escaped from a jam to get an inning-ending double play on a grounder up the middle. Veteran pitchers Roman Kimball and Matthew Becker looked very good. They each struck out two Air Force Falcons in one inning of work. Brandon Stone, Brendan Sweeney, and Wyatt Evans also stood out.
— While walks were a bit of a problem in this one, the Gamecock pitchers only surrendered five hits. Three of them came in the second inning. USC missed a lot of bats, something that should give pitching coach Terry Rooney lots of good positive feelings.
— Like they have been most of the fall, the Gamecocks were aggressive on the bases for much of this scrimmage. Whether or not that will translate to the season remains to be seen.
— Rain started falling late in the scrimmage. The teams still played the bottom of the 14th despite the weather and the big lead.
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Up Next: South Carolina baseball will face off in another fall exhibition against the College of Charleston on November 7th.
