South Carolina pushes streak to three with dominating win over Gardner-Webb

On3 imageby:Collyn Taylor•03/15/22•

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Sometimes a team needs a smothering performance in the midweek, and South Carolina got it Tuesday night.

The Gamecocks suffocated Gardner-Webb 12-0 in seven innings, jumping out to an early lead and cruising to their third-straight victory.

“I thought that was a really good game for us tonight. We wanted to be good in all areas of the game and we were,” Mark Kingston said. “Pitching was dominant, hitting did their job and the defense was flawless. It was a good, complete game for us. We needed to build on the momentum from Sunday and very happy with that performance.”

The Gamecocks jumped all over Gardner-Webb’s pitching. They’d plate four runs in the first three innings and chasing starter Jason E’Toile after just one inning.

Brandt Belk got things started with a leadoff home run on the first pitch he saw and the Gamecocks tacked on two more in the second and another in the third.

Kevin Madden launched a solo shot in the second inning—his third—and also followed it up with an RBI single.

The Gamecocks (10-6) really broke things open, though, in a four-run fourth. They’d also load the bases with no outs and get two two-run singles from Michael Braswell and Andrew Eyster to take control.

South Carolina also plated one in the fifth and three more in the sixth thanks to RBI singles from Carson Hornung and Elijah Lambros.

The Gamecocks finished with double-digit hits, the third time in the last four games, and hit 6-for-17 with runners on and 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

“It’s hard just to string random hits together and score a lot of runs. That what we were doing at the beginning of the season. I feel like the last six games you’ve seen us have more timely offense, be more situational, move runners over, drive guys in with two outs and runners in scoring position,” Andrew Eyster said. “That’s a huge part of having a productive offense. It’s good to see we’ve been improving on that quite a bit. I think we’re going to continue to.”

Aidan Hunter turned in arguably his best outing in his first career start. The freshman tossed four shutout innings, giving up four hits in a walk while striking out three.

He’d motor through three innings and work himself into a bases-loaded, one-out jam. He escaped with a strikeout and groundout to end it.

Hunter (3-2) also did it efficiently, averaging just 11.8 pitches per inning and throwing over 72 percent strikes.

“I thought he did well. He did exactly what we wanted,” Kingston said. “He was very efficient, let his defense play and handed the ball to Cade.”

South Carolina’s Cade Austin also had a fantastic outing, getting up to 92 miles per hour on his fastball in two scoreless innings. He’d only allow one hit to four strikeouts in just 23 pitches.

Michael Esposito slammed the door with a perfect seventh, punctuating his outing with a strikeout looking to end the game and give the Gamecocks a win.

“I thought that was as good as Cade looked all year and then Esposito at the end also. That’s as good as he looked all year with his best stuff,” Kingston said. “His last pitch of the game was 95 miles per hour. We need guys to step up. We challenge those guys when they get their opportunity to step up. They did that tonight.”

Things also turn quickly to SEC play. The Gamecocks open their conference slate with a three-game slate against Tennessee beginning Friday night.

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