Strong pitching guides South Carolina to series-opening win

It took longer than normal, but the same result as the previous five games.

After battling inclement weather, No. 21 South Carolina (6-0) picked up an 8-1 win over Belmont in the series opener on Friday.

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Eli Jones made his second start of the year and looked every bit of the Friday night ace for the Gamecocks. Outside of hitting one batter, he was brilliant, pitching three hitless innings. In the second, he struck out the side in order and finished with 37 pitches.

“While he was in there, I thought he was as good as I’ve seen him,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “Extremely sharp. Three innings on 37 pitches, that’s ridiculous.”

While Jones was dominating on the hill, the Gamecock offense quickly provided him with some run support. In the bottom of the first, Parker Noland hit his first homer in a Gamecock uniform, a two-run shot to open the scoring. Later in the inning, Dylan Brewer ripped a two-run single into right field.

However, weather intervened in the third inning and caused a two hour and 24 minute rain delay. This meant Jones’ outing would have to come to an abrupt end.

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Once play resumed, South Carolina didn’t take long to do some more scoring. Coming into Friday, Gavin Casas was batting just .111 on the year. Though it’s a small sample size, he only had one hit. But with two men aboard, he drilled an RBI double off the visiting bullpen fence, scoring both.

In his next at-bat, Casas hit an RBI single into center, giving himself three runs driven in on the night.

“It was good to see because Gavin has obviously been struggling,” Kingston said. “But he works really hard. We kept him in there, keep giving him shots to show that he can recapture what he had last year…I thought that was a big blow for us coming out of the delay to get to six runs instead of four. Kind of gave us a little bit of a cushion.”

With Jones not available to pitch after the break, Tyler Pitzer was handed the ball. He’d get off to a strong start, working his way through the fourth. In the fifth, he struck out the side in order.

But as the sixth began, he quickly worked into a major jam. The first three batters he faced reached base, meaning he was in a bases loaded situation with no outs. He’d nearly get out of it, coming within a strike of getting the third out without giving up a run. But he’d walk that batter, forcing home Belmont’s first run of the night. He did, however, strike out the next batter he faced to end the threat.

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Pitzer’s night came to an end after three innings of five strikeout ball. Tyler Dean was next up to pitch and he opened by retiring the side in order in the seventh. Joey Wittig pitched the final two innings of the night without giving up a run to seal the deal.

“We threw two freshmen today on a Friday night against a really good team who was 4-1 coming in. So that’s important. These kids need to grow and they need to have situations where it’s not just easy. It’s not an easy inter-squad, it’s a tough game on a Friday night under the lights where they’re battling. So I thought they both did well,” Kingston said.

RELATED: South Carolina-Belmont Game 1 Box Score

Up next: South Carolina is back for game two of the series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is at 2 p.m. on SEC Network Plus. Right-hander Dylan Eskew (1-0, 1.80 ERA) will make the start on the mound.

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