South Carolina outlasts Penn, takes game one of series

After five straight blowouts to start the season, South Carolina was due for a close game sooner rather than later. The Gamecocks got it Friday night from a quality Penn team. 

The Gamecocks, who jumped out to what looked like an easy 5-0 lead, had to hold on to beat the Quakers 7-4 in Friday’s series opener.

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“I think it was good to have a close game early in the season. Some days you’re going to show up to the park and you’re going to put up 20 runs,” Caleb Denny said. “Some days it’s going to be a donnybrook. It’s going to be a battle all game. I think it was good for us, in the long run, to have a tight one early.”

Things started about as well as possible for South Carolina, who used a five-run second inning and quality starting pitching from Will Sanders to cruise through the early part of the game.

But a five-run lead in the fifth quickly shrunk with Penn plating four of the next five runs in the game. The Quakers scratched across one thanks to a Braylen Wimmer throwing error, then they got to the Gamecocks’ bullpen.

They’d chase reliever Cade Austin after a pair of softly-hit singles and a sac bunt and made things interesting with an RBI groundout followed by a two-run homer off Nick Proctor.

A South Carolina bullpen that had dominated the first five games would need to do it again late.

It did, pitching out of a few jams but getting a shutdown outing from Chris Veach. Veach, in South Carolina’s first save situation, got out of a two-on, two-out jam in the eighth then pitched around a walk in the ninth to preserve the win.

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“The nerves were a little high,” Veach said, laughing. “It’s my first time pitching in a 6-4 game and I have to come in and close the door. I didn’t want to be a nincompoop. I just wanted to get the job done.” 

And the bullpen was able to hold on thanks to a few mammoth swings early from Denny and another big one from Cole Messina.

Denny paced the offense with three hits, capping a five-run second inning with a two-run single then driving in another in the sixth with a two-out hit also. He’s also the team leader with four doubles, rocketing another one to left-center in his first at-bat of the day.

He’s now up to a team-best 17 RBI while hitting well over .450

“I don’t think I have,” Denny said when asked if he ever started this fast. “I’d have to look at the stats but I’m usually a pretty average starter. This year, I don’t know what’s changed but I’m off to a hot start.” 

South Carolina’s offense, outside of that Denny single in the sixth, sputtered until Messina’s insurance. Up by just a pair in the eighth, Messina launched a ball into orbit, cranking a solo home run 403 feet to pad the Gamecocks’ lead.

It’s his fourth of the season, tying him with Gavin Casas and Ethan Petry–who also had a three-run homer Friday.

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Messina, after a tough freshman season, has started 9-for-24 and has driven in 14 runs through the first six games.

“That’s what you want. We generally say the biggest jump for players comes between the freshman and sophomore years,” Mark Kingston said. “That summer was huge for him. He’s one of the many guys who’ve taken a huge jump from freshman to sophomore year.” 

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Friday’s game snaps a five-game streak to start the year where South Carolina scored at least 10 runs, but it did give the Gamecocks something more valuable.

They got to see what a quality team looks like early in the season and experience a tight game before Clemson and the rest of the SEC slog begins in March.

“You have to see that. We’re going to have a lot of close games all year. We know what the SEC is,” Kingston said. “You need to play some close games so guys get what that feels like. They get that feeling in the bullpen to anticipate going into the game. All the games are important. But in close games, you learn a little bit more about your team.”

Up next: Game two of the series will kick off at 2 p.m. Saturday. It can be seen on the SEC Network Plus and streamed on 107.5 FM. Noah Hall (1-0, 1.60 ERA) is scheduled to start for South Carolina.

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