South Carolina impresses with 'most complete' performance in road win over The Citadel

It would’ve been hard to play any better than South Carolina did on Wednesday. It wasn’t perfect, but as head coach Paul Mainieri pointed out, if you’re perfect, you don’t make 27 outs.

The Gamecocks (11-3) cruised to a 9-1 road win over The Citadel in Charleston, and Mainieri said he couldn’t have been happier with the way they played. He thought it was the “most complete game we’ve played all year.”

“We just really did everything we would have hoped to have done against a good ball club,” he said. “So I’m just really proud of the guys, and I think we showed today what we’re capable of being.”

Making his second start of the year, Jarvis Evans Jr. gave South Carolina a superb outing on the mound. After enduring some early struggles in previous outings, the left-hander put together the longest and perhaps best performance of his college career.

Evans tossed seven innings of one-run ball against the Bulldogs lineup. His previous longest outing was 5.1 innings, which he did twice when he was at Georgia. The lone run given up came on a sacrifice fly in the third after Petry nearly made a great diving catch down the right field line that went off his glove and resulted in a triple.

Aside from that, Evans was at his best from start to finish. Not many runners reached base while he was on the mound, as The Citadel only left one runner on. He only surrendered three hits and struck out six with two walks.

“It felt good just kind of just trusting myself, trust the work that I put in, trust the advice that Coach (Terry) Rooney gives to all the pictures and go out there and just do my thing,” Evans said. “Don’t worry about Don’t worry about the last outings. Don’t worry about the next outings. Worry about this outing.”

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Evans received some early run support from his offense, which further allowed him to pitch as long as he did.

“I mean, every time your offense could put up runs, it makes pitching a whole lot easier,” Evans said. “And we came out the gate swinging it, and we were seeing the ball.”

Despite wind gusts reaching upwards of 20 miles per hour, South Carolina had no problem making good contact. Ethan Petry opened the scoring with a long two-run homer in the first inning. It was the 48th of his career, which tied him with Hank Small for second on South Carolina’s all-time home run list.

In the third, Evan Stone connected for his first homer of the year, a solo shot that cleared the left field scoreboard. Stone picked up another RBI hit in the eighth, driving in a run with a double into left center. He finished 2-for-5 in his second start in the outfield this year.

“I mean, it’s awesome. I’ve been waiting on my time,” Stone said on getting the start on Wednesday. “I mean, I trust in the Lord, and I trust in Coach Mainieri. I know that Coach Mainieri is going to put the best guys out there. He gave me a start, and I just went out there and gave it everything I had.”

The Gamecocks added two more runs in the fourth as Henry Kaczmar nearly hit his second homer in as many days. His long fly ball ended up hitting off the top of the right field wall, but he wound up on third base with an RBI triple. One batter later, Nathan Hall drove him in with a single into center.

It was a strong night for most of South Carolina’s lineup, with five starters recording multi-hit games. Both Petry and Beau Hollins went 3-for-5 at the plate. Hall and KJ Scobey also had two hits apiece.

“I thought it was awesome. I mean, everybody showed up today,” Stone said. “I remember Beau, I’m like, ‘Daggum, how many hits he’s got?’ He had an awesome game. Pet did his thing, and everybody else. It was just awesome to see.”

Up next: South Carolina will begin a three-game series with Morehead State at Founders Park on Friday night. First pitch is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus.

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