South Carolina utilizes big third en route to 7-1 win over Georgia State

South Carolina took home a 7-1 win against Georgia State in its final midweek game before the start of SEC play on Wednesday evening.

The Gamecocks plated almost as many runs as hits, totaling seven runs and eight hits as South Carolina capitalized on five Panthers errors.

Noah Hall and Jordan Carrion led the team in hits with three and two respectively. The duo also knocked the Gamecocks only extra base hits.

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Despite both teams tagging the ball early, both teams struggled getting the ball in fair play in the opening inning. The Panthers went three-up, three-down in opening half of the inning while the Gamecocks stranded two in the bottom. Both of South Carolina’s base runners reached on error and walk respectively in its side of the first.

After two Georgia State outs in the second, it wouldn’t take the Panther’s Colin Hynek more than one pitch to send it out of the park. The home run was Hynek’s seventh of the season. The one-run homer got momentum rolling for Georgia State, with Andon Lewis hitting a single immediately after.

A mound visit after a run of wild pitches advanced a Panthers batter to third and walked another seemed to settle starter Jarvis Evans Jr down. Evans Jr ended the inning with a seven-pitch strikeout.

Evans Jr went on to sit down the next six batters he faced, including three swinging strikeouts.

The South Carolina side of the second got off to an acrobatic start by Georgia St first baseman William Maginnis. Maginnis had to jump to field a routine grounder, ending the play in a difficult tag on Beau Hollins. Maginnis, however, applied the tag just late giving the Gamecocks their first hit of the evening.

South Carolina wouldn’t capitalize on base runners until Ethan Petry and Kennedy Jones sac outs plated the Gamecocks’ opening runs. Two back to back walks later, the Panthers had seen enough of their starter.

In 2.2 innings of work, Dylan Matela allowed two hits and four earned runs. Matela only struck out one batter he faced.

“You know, I felt bad for Georgia State because their starting pitcher they were supposed to throw had to get bumped to Friday … so they didn’t end up pitching the guy we thought they were gonna pitch,” head coach Paul Mainieri said. “So they had to kind of piece it together and we took advantage of that today.”

After a Talmadge LeCroy walk loaded the bases, Carrion cleared them to extend the Gamecock lead to 5-1. The double allowed the Gamecocks to bat around the third. Carrion would reach home on a Hall base hit before innings end to give South Carolina a 6-1 lead.

“My number gets called, doing everything I can to help the team win,” Carrion said on being able to provide in key moments after missing an entire season.

Maineri said he’s happy with how well Carrion has been playing lately.

“That was a big hit he got tonight for us,” Maineri said. “And he turned double plays, guy’s spectacular defensively and he’s a great kid.”

Georgia State briefly got the bats going again in the top of the fifth. However, a strikeout and 5-4-3 double play got Evans Jr. out of a jam without allowing a run. The Gamecocks plated Henry Kaczmar, who reached on the Panthers fourth error of the night, after a Hall double before innings end.

“I thought that was a major league double play we turned to get out of that one jam with Scobey and JC,” Maineri said.

Matthew Becker relieved Evans Jr. after five. Evans Jr ended the game allowing four hits and one run, striking out seven batters. He ended his day with 79 pitches thrown.

Georgia State’s lineup change of Cole Griffith for Colin Hynek in the seventh proved effective immediately with Griffith knocking a single past Kaczmar in his first plate appearance. However, a 6-4-3 double play would quickly end that scoring threat for the Panthers.

South Carolina would start putting its pinch hitters in for the day in the eighth, with Jase Woita coming to the plate in place of Kaczmar and quickly knocking a single to left. A strikeout for Nolan Nawrocki ended the side, stranding Wiota. Three of the Gamecocks’ four batters in the eighth were pinch hitters.

Mainieri made one final pitching change after having Zach Russell collect the first two outs of the ninth as Brendan Sweeney closed the Carolina win with a strikeout.

The many pitching changes late came as a result of wanting to get players reps, Mainieri said.

It really worked out well, Mainieri said. “We started with Becker, getting him an inning, and then Crowther got a couple of batters, just brought in a bunch of different guys. The only guys we didn’t need to pitch were Marlatt and Pitzer. But we actually got them up in the bullpen and let them throw a little bit of a bullpen to stay sharp.”

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