Jack's takes from South Carolina's doubleheader split with Arkansas
After losing by one run on Friday, South Carolina bounced back with a big win over Arkansas in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday. However, the Razorbacks’ bats came alive in game two to clinch a series victory.
It’s a tough blow for the Gamecocks after playing fairly well this weekend. But now, they’ve dropped four of their first six SEC series of the season.
Here are my takes from all of Saturday’s action.
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Kingston has found his weekend rotation
Based on the way Mark Kingston spoke after the doubleheader, it seems like he’s found his weekend rotation, at least for the Kentucky series. Here’s exactly what he said.
“I thought all three guys that we put in the rotation this weekend gave us exactly what we hoped. Roman was dominant until he had to come out of the game with the thumb. Eli Jones pitched well enough to help us win game two. And then, Eskew gave up one earned run in basically six innings. So that’s something we can build on. All three guys gave us a chance to win. And that’s what you ask for when you’re facing the number two team in the country.”
All in all, it was a good weekend for the starting pitching. Kimball didn’t go long but that was because of his thumb issue. Jones only went four innings but still pitched well. And then, Eskew was the big surprise, going 5.2 innings of one-run ball, which was his longest outing of the year. He looked the sharpest of the bunch.
Of course, things could change again in the future. But for right now, I would expect a combination of these three to start next weekend vs. Kentucky.
Nightmarish day for Ethan Petry
It was going to be hard for South Carolina to win this series without its best player stepping up. And unfortunately, Petry had a weekend to forget at the plate. He went a combined 0-for-10 in the two games on Saturday. In the series, he went 0-for-12 with six strikeouts.
Should this be a concern? No, not really. Petry is too good of a player to let this overtake his season. He’ll be fine in the long run. It’s just one of those times where he is struggling mightily. I mean, he was coming off a big week when South Carolina went on its five-game roadtrip. So this sort of thing happens from time to time.
When watching his at-bats, he just looked defeated. There was one strikeout he had in the final game where he just started walking to the dugout as soon as the third strike crossed the plate. That should really sum up how bad it was for him.
The good news is the team doesn’t have a game until Friday, so that should be enough time for Petry and others who struggled to get their minds right. And I definitely think he will.
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South Carolina might’ve found its new leadoff hitter
Coming into this weekend, Austin Brinling only had one at-bat to his name in a South Carolina uniform. He was nothing more than a sparingly used pinch-runner.
But with a chance to start this weekend, Brinling took full advantage of his opportunity. He went 4-for-10 at the plate with a double and two RBIs. He also walked three times. Now, he did get picked off twice, but that’s going to happen when a guy like him is probably amped up to try and make an immediate impact. I don’t expect that to happen again from him considering he’s an older guy.
I have to give Kingston some credit, he made the right move hitting Brinling leadoff on Saturday for both games. He really set the tone of getting on base as a quicker guy and hit the ball well. He’s definitely got a lot of speed, and while he didn’t swipe any bags this weekend, I’d expect that to change going forward. He’s too quick not to.
