PHOTOS: South Carolina dominates Winthrop
The Gamecocks offense keeps on humming.
South Carolina dominated Winthrop in its first midweek game of the season, rattling off a 19-3 win against the Eagles.
GamecockCentral was on hand and snapping photos. Check out Tuesday’s photo gallery with photos by Caroline Barry.
South Carolina dominates Winthrop
by Collyn Taylor
South Carolina baseball’s offense just keeps flexing its muscle through the early portion of the schedule.
The Gamecocks put up double-digit runs for the fourth straight game as they cruised past Winthrop 19-3 Tuesday.
It’s the first time South Carolina (4-0) has scored double-digit runs in four straight games since 2006. It’s the first time the Gamecocks have done it to open a season since 1987.
“It’s not just the power. We’re doing a lot of things well,” Mark Kingston said. I’m happy with a lot of things. It’s early, but we’re showing a lot of good signs.”
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And, like they have through the first two games, they did with the formula of getting on base and driving runs in with homers.
South Carolina walked 11 times to just nine strikeouts. When the Gamecocks pair it with five more home runs Tuesday that tends to lead to a lot of runs.
“I see a talented, older lineup. But our young guys have a lot of experience and went out and played summer ball,” Kingston said. “You add a Petry into the mix who’s an extremely talented kid. We’re just taking great at-bats. Monte (Lee’s) done a really nice job giving these guys an identity in what we want them to do daily. It looks good right now.”
Led by Ethan Petry’s two homers headlined the day. But Braylen Wimmer hit a three-run dinger while Cole Messina launched the first grand slam of his career as part of a sixth-run fifth inning.
South Carolina now has the same number of grand slams this year (2) as it did in all of 2022. Petry, who started the year on the bench, has come on strong since the season began.
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He is now 6-for-10 with three home runs to start the season. Over the last two games, both starts for the freshman, he’s 4-for-7 with five runs driven in.
“You see the contagiousness of walks and hits,” he said. “Then everything with our offense is explosive. Everyone, one through nine, and even guys off the bench are coming in ready to go.”
It helped a highly-touted freshman in Eli Jerzembeck settle into the game and pitch a solid outing in his South Carolina debut.
