South Carolina opens the new season with a win on Opening Day
It wasn’t the cleanest path to victory, but a victory nonetheless. Thanks in part to some early run scoring and solid pitching, No. 25 South Carolina (1-0) was able to snag a 5-1 win over Miami (Ohio) on Opening Day.
“Really good night, 5-1 win. Wasn’t real clean, there’s some things we could’ve done a lot better,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “Tremendous crowd…made it such a great environment. I heard the traffic was like a football game trying to get into Founders tonight. So that’s great to hear.”
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Eli Jones, making the Opening Day start on the mound, let two runners on base to get his day going. He’d get a double play out of the next batter but it meant a run scored for Miami (Ohio).
“Definitely a lot of jitters. But at the end of the day, it’s still the same game I’ve played my whole life,” Jones said. “It’s something I’ve dreamt of, which makes it a little bit more nerve-wracking, but I think I handled it pretty well.”
After going down in order in the first inning, the Gamecocks got it going in the second. Cole Messina lined a double down the right field line for the first hit of the year. One batter later, Talmadge LeCroy hit a ball underneath the glove of the third baseman to tie the game at one.
On the first pitch he saw, Tyler Causey, making his South Carolina debut, drilled a single into center field, scoring LeCroy. Dylan Brewer and Will Tippett both followed with RBI singles of their own in the next two at-bats. Blake Jackson rounded out the scoring with an RBI groundout back to the mound.
In the blink of an eye, South Carolina came to life and put up a five spot in the second.
South Carolina had a golden opportunity to plate some more runs in the fifth. After an infield bunt single and two walks, the bases were loaded with no one out. The heart of the order was due up. But Messina would be fooled on a few pitches and struck out. Then, LeCroy grounded into an inning-ending double play, erasing any hope of scoring a run.
“I think we had two bases loaded situations where we just didn’t break through,” Kingston said. “We’ll break through in those situations more times than not. We have the bases loaded with the middle of our lineup up, that’ll go our way more times than not.”
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While the offense didn’t do much to start, Jones settled in nicely after giving up the first inning run. He ended up going six innings, giving up three hits and striking out five without a walk.
First up in relief in the seventh was Eddie Copper, making his college debut. But it didn’t last very long as he gave up a single then hit two straight batters.
“When you have a four-run lead, you’re going to try to use some other guys so you don’t use your best guys until it gets tight,” Kingston said. “So we tried to do that, we tried to sneak Eddie in there. Eddie Copper’s been one of our best pitchers through the entire preseason and he just went out there tonight and looked a little nervous, which is completely normal for a freshman pitching in an SEC environment for the first time.
“So we’ll go back out to him very quickly at some point. But we wanted to get his feet wet with that lead. But when he got in trouble, you’re one pitch away from it being a very close ballgame. So you have to go to your guys when you need to go to your guys.”
New pitching coach Matt Williams quickly walked out to the mound and signaled for Chris Veach to come in and get the Gamecocks out of a tight spot.
“Coach Williams said after Eli’s done with a certain pitch count, whatever he got to, I was going in next. And just warmed up and went in,” Veach said. “I’d say it was more of just when I’m needed to do a job. If the job calls for bases loaded and no outs, getting outs, or just like close the game, I’ll close the game.”
In typical Veach fashion, he threw a beauty of an off speed pitch to get a strikeout for the first out. Then, he got a pop fly that wasn’t deep enough for a sacrifice fly. To finish it off, he struck out Anthony Zarlingo, coming off the mound all fired up.
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Veach came back out for the eighth and worked himself into a minor jam with two runners aboard and one out. He got the next two batters to put the ball in the play, but both for outs to end the threat. In two innings of work, he threw 32 pitches, gave up one hit and struck out two.
Austin Williamson came into pitch to start the ninth inning, but he quickly got himself into trouble. He put runners on the corners with one out, forcing the Gamecocks to go back to the bullpen.
Garrett Gainey was the next to be called upon to try and work out of the spot. He came in and struck out the first batter he faced before allowing a walk. But he’d respond with a groundout to short to seal the deal.
Up next: South Carolina is back for game two of the series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is at 12 p.m. on SEC Network plus. Dylan Eskew, who pitched out of relief last year, will make the start on the bump.
