Will Sanders emerges as veteran leader for South Carolina baseball
When Will Sanders was a freshman, he didn’t know what to expect as a South Carolina baseball player.
Now, two years later, he relishes the opportunity to serve as a role model for his younger teammates.
In his first collegiate season, Sanders relied on Brett Kerry, Thomas Farr and Brannon Jordan for help and advice. Sanders said those three players “set the tone” and taught him about the importance of work ethic and humility.
Subscribe to Gamecock Central until Aug. 31 for only $29.99!
Sanders hopes he can have a similar impact on the next generation of Gamecock players.
“This is our chance to make that impact on those players. Two years later, I still think about them daily. I want the freshmen this year to have that thought about me. That’s what pushes me,” Sanders said. “This team and this school have been here for a long time. I’m just a small blip of it. But I want to impact as many people as I can in a positive way.”
Sanders had one of his first leadership opportunities this summer, when he and the rest of the pitching staff set expectations for the 2023 campaign.
“That was probably the first time ever none of us have played summer ball, so we got to just stay here and work out and figure out what we wanted as a staff and as a team,” Sanders said. ”We’ve all been part of this, or at least I have, for two years, so we knew what worked and didn’t work, and we could see for ourselves what we wanted.”
He also used the team’s trips to Fort Jackson as a way to gauge his teammates’ responsiveness to stressful situations.
“It was good to just see how everyone, new and old, reacts to pressure,” Sanders said. “That’s the biggest thing in baseball.”
Subscribe for free to Gamecock Central’s YouTube page!
An important lesson he wants to teach his teammates is that one player does not solely contribute to the team’s success.
“I want to let the pitchers on our team know that it’s not just them out there. It’s them with eight defenders, and the whole staff is behind them,” Sanders said. “I think it speaks to you as a person how you treat on the other people on staff and how you can lead a team because it’s tough. We play good teams. We’re going to face good hitters. It’s not one pitcher out there, it’s everybody.”
At his core, Sanders is a competitor who hopes to improve upon his 7-3 record and 3.43 ERA from last season. Sanders gets the ball Opening Day with his goal to help South Carolina win as many games as possible.
“In the SEC, it doesn’t matter if you win Friday and Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, or Friday and Saturday. You just got to win two,” Sanders said. “I really don’t care what day I am when I get the ball. I’m going to try and win that game.”
Get South Carolina baseball news and analysis via email
Since this summer, however, he has seen how beneficial taking a leadership role is to his teammates and himself.
“I have a chance to help the younger people and explain to them what the experience is like and what goes into being successful at this level,” Sanders said. “It’s been a great chance to talk to everybody on the team and give them my insight on what I’ve been through. I think it helps me as a person and a player grow.”
Sanders, along with a number of his veteran teammates, was recognized by Mark Kingston for his leadership efforts during the offseason.
“I give Sanders, (Noah) Hall, (Jack) Mahoney, and (Braylen) Wimmer a lot of credit,” Kingston said. “They’ve evolved as the leaders on this team. They’re great players, but they also have really been invested in this team so far,” Kingston said. “They’ve done a really nice job of welcoming the new players, young and old.”
Sanders went as far as to say taking a leadership role has been a defining moment of his college career.
“Whatever my role is, I’ve never felt better as a person, as a player, as a pitcher, as a teammate, as a leader,” Sanders said. “This is the peak up to this point. I think I’m the best I’ve ever been.”
