Skip to main content
South Carolina

Matthew Becker set to start on Wednesday in return to mound

imageby:Jack Veltri•02/21/24•

jacktveltri

Untitled design-420
Matthew Becker (Brodie Perry/GamecockCentral)

It was just another scrimmage outing for Matthew Becker. He was cruising along with five strikeouts through facing six batters. He was all but a lock to be a weekend starter.

Then, he came back out for the third inning and threw a pitch, leading to immediate pain. He crouched down behind the mound, holding his shoulder. Soon after, Mark Kingston came out and his day was over.

[GamecockCentral for $1: In-depth coverage and a great community]

Becker was dealing with a strained lat. As a result, he missed making a potential opening weekend start. But now, he’ll make his season debut in South Carolina’s matchup with Queens on Wednesday (4 p.m., SECN+).

“I think you’ll see similar to what we did with Roman (Kimball) this weekend. Get him out there for a couple innings, get his feet wet again, get him used to being out there on the mound, and then be able to build off of that,” Kingston said.

[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Florida men’s basketball game]

Getting Becker back this soon is huge for the Gamecocks, who have pitched very well four games into the season. The junior left-hander made 11 starts last season, pitching to a 4.83 ERA with 71 strikeouts.

While there will be some build up to get Becker back to pitching at full strength, he knows he’ll be able to handle it when the time is right.

“I do feel like I’m ready. It’s more like I can’t think about, ‘Oh, I’ve got to make 15 to 20 starts and we’ve got to win a certain percentage of those games,” Becker said. “I think I’ve just got to go out there, if I’m schedule to start, good. Give me my two hours, three hours to prepare and then take it one out at a time.”

[On3 App: Get South Carolina push notifications from GamecockCentral]

For a rotation with a lot of unproven arms, Becker is one of the few that has SEC experience as a starter. He burst onto the scene as a freshman, making back-to-back quality starts against Texas and Tennessee. From April on last year, he was a regular starter in the weekend rotation.

“Definitely have come a really long way,” Becker said. “I think if you, from a physical standpoint, watch video from that game compared to video of me pitching now, I think it almost looks like a completely different person. I’m definitely a lot more efficient and able to carry my weight a little bit. And then from a mental standpoint, I’ve obviously matured a lot. I now understand how the game works and how the long season works from just being here every day. I’m ready for it now.”

Discuss South Carolina baseball on The Insiders Forum!

You may also like