South Carolina sweeps doubleheader with Vanderbilt behind another strong offensive showing

It was only a matter of time until things started to click.

“We had a tough weekend at Ole Miss, offensively. And seeing new things kind of got us going on Sunday. We just kept mixing it up. And now, we’ve found this click,” Ethan Petry said. “One through four is power. And then you’ve got guys seven through nine, speed. It sets up everything perfectly.”

After some rough stretches at the plate, South Carolina left no doubt what it’s still capable of offensively. The Gamecocks (18-5, 3-2 SEC) picked up an 8-3 win over No. 3 Vanderbilt on Saturday night to sweep the doubleheader.

“It’d be harder to think you could play better than we did today,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “Against the No. 3 team in the country on a long winning streak, our guys were incredible all day — pitching, defense, offense. That’s as good as you can play baseball, in my opinion, and really proud of the guys for that effort.”

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Looking to follow up Eli Jones’ brilliance earlier in the day, Dylan Eskew couldn’t provide the same length as his teammate. After pitching a clean first frame, the right-hander served up an RBI double to Troy LaNeve in the second. However, the run came unearned as Talmadge LeCroy made an error to begin the inning.

Luckily, it wasn’t the end of the world as Petry launched a solo shot onto the left field concourse in the home half of the inning to tie the game. This was the slugger’s ninth homer of the year.

“When Moose and Ethan Petry are taking really good at bats, then everything falls in line behind it and we look like a really good offense,” Kingston said. “So to have them play like they did today in such an important series just speaks to what we’re capable of.”

But Eskew’s struggles continued throughout the rest of his outing. He’d give up a two-out RBI single to Camden Kozeal in the third. And after getting the final out, his day would come to an end.

For the second straight start, Eskew failed to work into at least the fifth inning, which is something he’s only done three times this season. It wasn’t a bad start, but he struggled with his command at times, hitting two batters and walking another. He threw just 61 pitches.

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Going into the fourth, South Carolina turned to Ty Good out of the bullpen. After getting two quick outs, he gave up a single, followed by a double to make it a 3-1 game.

In the fifth, Vanderbilt looked prime to pad its lead even further with runners on the corners and one out. But Good got Jayden Davis to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the jam.

“(Will) Tippett made an incredible play. … It’s great to have athletes on defense and especially at the shortstop position,” Kingston said. “Having range can turn the whole inning around. And so turning that double play and then bringing us into the dugout with that momentum. Obviously, we had a big inning offensively there. So that stuff, it feeds off each other, no question.”

And this was the play that seemed to flip an internal switch for the Gamecocks. Because in the bottom half, Tyler Causey and Blake Jackson hit consecutive doubles to cut the deficit to one.

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One batter later, Dylan Brewer hit one off the end of the bat that went off the third baseman’s glove, allowing him to reach first safely. Brewer would eventually move up to second on a ball in the dirt. This miscue by Vanderbilt would be big as Parker Noland grounded out to second to tie the game at three.

Now with two outs, Cole Messina launched a two-run homer that just carried over the left field wall to give the Gamecocks their first lead of the game.

Even with Vanderbilt turning to its bullpen, the offense continued to lay down the hammer. Petry smoked his second homer of the game, a solo shot over the right field wall. Two batters later, Tyler Causey hit a line drive homer into the visitors bullpen to make it a 7-3 lead.

But in the seventh, the Commodores were threatening, bringing the game’s tying run to the plate with two outs. Instead of letting Parker Marlatt ride it out and get himself out of his own mess, the Gamecocks turned to Garrett Gainey, who had closed out game one just a few hours earlier.

And just like before, Gainey came in and blew a 94 mile-per-hour fastball by Matthew Polk to end the potential threat.

Later in the seventh, Petry picked up his third RBI of the game, a two-out single into right field that scored Noland from third. The Gamecock slugger finished going 3-for-4 in the two games, including three walks from game one.

“With runners on base, we felt like we had to get a hit. And then one day, we were kind of just like go hit the ball,” Petry said. “We just started go out there and hit the ball and having a lot of fun. That’s when everything starts clicking.”

From there, Gainey would pitch the rest of the way and finish Vanderbilt off. The left-hander pitched a clean eighth and then struck out the side in the ninth to seal the deal.

Up next: South Carolina will look to sweep the weekend series on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is at 1:30 p.m. on SEC Network Plus. The team has yet to announce a starting pitcher for the series finale.

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