South Carolina completes series sweep over No. 3 Florida

Chris Veach got a swinging strikeout and South Carolina erupted. 

Veach, rebounding after committing a run-scoring error, just slammed the door on Florida to secure a 7-5 South Carolina win. 

In the aftermath he turned to the Florida dugout and sequenced his fingers to count to three, a memento of the third strike he just threw and the number of wins South Carolina picked up this weekend while sweeping the third-ranked team in the country. 

“We have a really good team right now. I’m really happy with those guys. All the hard work they put in this weekend, this is a culmination of that,” Mark Kingston said. “Obviously we still have a long way to go but this was a great statement for our guys. I’m very happy they’re having the success they deserve.” 

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 The Gamecocks, fresh off their first series loss that included too many self-inflicted wounds to count, South Carolina never trailed at the end of any inning all weekend and held Florida’s potent offense to just 10 total runs. 

“It’s pretty obvious: good guys. Each and every one of them go out and work as hard as they can,” Matthew Becker said. “Even tomorrow everyone will still be up here and it’s an off day. Everyone’s working as hard as they can to show (it).”

It started early with Becker and the top of the Gamecocks’ order with the lefty allowing just two earned runs in arguably his best outing of the year. 

He allowed two hits in his outing–each a solo shot to Cade Kurland–while holding the rest of Florida’s offense hitless in 15 at-bats with just one walk and six strikeouts. 

It was the longest outing of his season, and he also left with a four-run lead thanks to a South Carolina (34-6, 13-4 SEC) offense that continues to roll. 

“(Becker) stepped up big time for us. He looked like a guy that should be pitching on an SEC weekend. He had poise,” Mark Kingston said. “I told Matthew after he came out of the game as impressed as I was with his stuff and performance the fact he was that poised throughout the outing was really big progress for him.”

Braylen Wimmer got things going early thanks to a two-run shot in the first inning, the eighth-straight game South Carolina’s scored in the first. 

Wimmer–the Gamecocks’ veteran-most piece offensively–finished with two hits, drove in three and scored once.

“It’s big to get it going early like that,” Wimmer said. “That builds momentum for us and gives confidence to the rest of the lineup hopefully.”

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The top of South Carolina’s order–Wimmer, Dylan Brewer and Ethan Petry–combined to go 7-for-12 and drove in five of the seven runs while scoring four times. 

A two-run Petry double broke things open in the fourth and etched his name in the record books again. He now has 64 RBI on the season, the most ever by a South Carolina freshman, breaking Justin Smoak’s record of 63 set in 2006. 

“It’s big. I knew I was going to get asked about him. But I don’t know what to say about that guy right now. It’s big,” Wimmer said. “They’re not going to pitch around me much cause they don’t want to get to him. It’s big.” 

South Carolina’s gritty lineup chased starter Jac Caglianone after just 82 pitches in three innings, plating four runs off the flamethrower. 

The Gamecocks rolled and put up one more run in the fifth and another in the eighth. They’d tag Florida’s pitching staff for 10 hits, four of those coming with two outs.  

They hit 13-for-34 (.382) with two outs this weekend while 16 of their 22 RBI driven in with two away. 

“I remember you guys asking what our identity was going to be at the beginning of the year. And that’s exactly what it’s been,” Wimmer said. “We’re going to grind them out, get them out of the game and get to people’s bullpens.” 

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South Carolina’s bullpen gave up three runs to make things interesting, two of those earned. But Veach slammed the door in the ninth to secure the sweep. 

The Gamecocks are now 24-1 at home and also haven’t lost a series at Founders Park all year. 

“When you pitch, can play really good defense–which we did all weekend–and bang the ball like we bang the ball and put them in that environment,” Kingston said, “it’s a hard place to win. Nothing will be guaranteed but that’s how you draw it up.” 

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Up next: South Carolina doesn’t have a midweek game this week while finals happen. The next time the Gamecocks play will be Friday when they host Auburn for a three-game series. 

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