South Carolina baseball scrimmage notes: Oct. 22
The Gamecocks scrimmage for about two hours Saturday afternoon, getting after it before the football team takes on Texas A&M.
Here are some notes from the Gamecocks’ outing.
Monte Lee making his presence known
Newly hired hitting coach and recruiting coordinator Monte Lee has been a big force this fall for South Carolina. Lee has been very very vocal throughout the fall. He chimes in with just about every hitting cliché one could think of.
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“Way to be on the hunt. Stay wide. Way to see the baseball. See it up drive it through. Up is yours,” were Lee’s favorites on the day.
Lee will be a very big part of helping the South Carolina lineup generate hitting success. With head coach Mark Kingston being defensive-focused, Lee brings a new dimension of coaching to South Carolina baseball. It seems as if Lee, along with the hoard of transfers that Kingston brought in is the facelift this program needs.
Saturday’s Pitching
South Carolina threw a number of arms Saturday. Two-way junior Jack Mahoney started the game and brought his best stuff. His slider was downright nasty. Mahoney reached 85 miles per hour with the pitch and got three strikeouts. Two of Mahoney’s strikeouts got the batters looking.
Brett Thomas also threw two innings. He allowed three hits and four runs on the afternoon. Thomas was a bit wild, having a few past balls that scored three runs. His fastball topped out at 94 miles per hour.
Cade Austin also got some work and looked really good. He was firing on all cylinders and hitting his spots. Austin hit 93 miles per hour with his fastball which was on the corners mostly. His curveball generated a lot of swings and misses. Austin’s slider was also working well. He hit 84 miles per hour with the pitch and had a lot of movement. Austin wound up tallying four strikeouts on the day.
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JUCO transfer Dylan Eskew looked good in his two innings of work. He was hitting 82/83 miles per hour on his breaking balls. Eskew is going to be an option out of the bullpen come March.
California Transfer Nick Proctor also took to the hill and allowed a run on a past ball after starting his inning with runners in scoring position. His breaking balls looked really really good and finished the game with a slider that froze the batter in the box.
Saturday’s hitting
South Carolina struggled in the hitting department in Saturday’s scrimmage. Most of the runs came from past balls.
There were a lot of good pieces of hitting on the afternoon. No home runs, but the offense got the gritty runs. Plenty of hard-fought singles that got down and scored runs. Overall on a day where pitching dominated, one cannot complain about the offensive effort.
True freshman Ethan Petry hit the ball very well. He had himself two base knocks that each scored a run. Petry is going to be a huge factor for South Carolina when it comes to depth.
