Three things we learned from South Carolina baseball’s sweep of Longwood
A week after dropping both games against Clemson, South Carolina baseball got back on track. The Gamecocks went 5-0 this week, capping off a weekend sweep of Longwood with a 22-6 seven-inning, mercy-rule victory Sunday afternoon.
Here are three takeaways from the Gamecocks’ final non-conference series of the season. (South Carolina will start SEC play Friday at Ole Miss.):
1. Pitching staff still in flux
For a while there, it seemed as if all the concerns over South Carolina’s pitching staff losing nearly two-thirds of its production from 2023 were completely misguided.
The Gamecocks’ weekend starters — Eli Jones (Friday), Dylan Eskew (Saturday) and Roman Kimball (Sunday) — were rolling through two weekends and weren’t all that bad against Clemson, despite the two losses.
But in that series against the Tigers, because the Friday game was rained out, South Carolina coach Mark Kingston had to tinker with his rotation. He started Jones on Saturday and Eskew on Sunday with Kimball relieving Sunday.
A week later, Kingston went to a similar approach.
He started Jones on Friday and Eskew on Saturday, but again threw Kimball out of the bullpen to follow Eskew. The Notre Dame transfer walked two batters and hit two others and was pulled after getting just one out.
“We look at Roman as a weapon. He can start. He can come out of the bullpen. He can close potentially. Today wasn’t his day, obviously, he just didn’t have it,” Kingston told reporters Saturday. “The plan with him today was to throw him out there after Eskew because he’s such a different look.”
With Jones, Eskew and Kimball having already pitched, Kingston went to College of Charleston transfer Ty Good on Sunday. Good had never started for the Gamecocks, but had tossed eight innings out of the bullpen without allowing a run.
Against Longwood, Good was solid through his first two innings of work but got into trouble in the third. He allowed a leadoff triple, then after a fielding error by third baseman Talmadge LeCroy kept the inning going, gave up a three-run home run that put Longwood ahead.
“I thought he was good,” Kingston said of Good. “I wish we would have made a few more plays behind him.”
It will be interesting to see how Kingston manages his rotation going forward.
2. The good and bad of the Gamecocks’ LOB situation
South Carolina has a problem. There are very few innings that end without a Gamecock — or three — stranded on the base paths. During Sunday’s series finale against Longwood, South Carolina left 11 men on base — twice ending innings with the bases juiced.
Even before the matinee, the Gamecocks were in a different stratosphere at leaving runners aboard. Here’s how they stacked up with the other eight ranked SEC teams in runners left on base (LOB) heading into Sunday.
No. 8 Tennessee — 108
No. 2 Arkansas — 110
No. 19 Auburn — 113
No. 4 Florida — 117
No. 15 Alabama — 122
No. 9 Vanderbilt — 125
No. 7 Texas A&M — 133
No. 3 LSU — 137
No. 21 South Carolina — 166
Now while it is quite easy to look at this as a bugaboo that could come to bite the Gamecocks come SEC play, one could easily view that stat through a lens of positivity. The only way you leave people on base is by getting people on base — and the Gamecocks do that better than anyone.
“We get so many guys on base that, generally, our left on base numbers will be higher than a lot of teams that don’t get on base as much. The key is: I want to see that our production with runners on base mimics what we have with nobody on base.”
After Sunday, the Gamecocks are hitting .280 as a team, but just .266 with runners on base and only .238 with runners in scoring position.
Coming into the weekend, though, South Carolina was tied with Ole Miss for the most walks in America. They will surely move solely atop that stat after this weekend. In three games against Longwood, the Gamecocks were issued 31 free passes — including drawing 18 (!) walks on Sunday alone.
So, yes, South Carolina is leaving plenty of guys aboard. They are also getting plenty of guys on board. Think of the potential if a few timely hits come through.
3. Cole Messina coming around
Ethan Petry and Cole Messina were supposed to be yin and yang. The Gamecocks’ respective right fielder and catcher were named preseason All-Americans and were the middle-of-the-order power that could scare any pitching staff in the country.
Petry has been superb after a breakout freshman year that included 23 home runs and a million accolades, slugging better than any Gamecocks starter while getting on base just as much as anyone.
Meanwhile, Messina came into this weekend in a three-week slump.
Before Friday, South Carolina’s cleanup hitter was batting .183 (9-49) with 14 RBI, 12 walks and just 22 total bases.
If there were concerns, they were short-livid. In three games against Longwood, the junior from Summerville went 5 for 10 with three dingers, a double and four walks.
“You need your dudes to be dudes,” Kingston said Saturday. “I think his bat is starting to come around now and he’s starting to find his groove again offensively. When he does that, we’re a completely different offense.”
