Field Report: Yardcocks at East Carolina

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South Carolina traveled to Greenville, NC to play East Carolina.  They lost the series two games to one by scores of 6-2, 3-4, and 2-4.

 

Breaking it down…Friday began with a strong outing from senior pitcher Blake Cooper who pitched 7 innings giving up only 2 runs.  The offense was paced by Adam Matthews and Kyle Enders who had 2 hits apiece.  Never able to put the big inning together, the Gamecocks nonetheless scored 6 runs in 5 different innings to get the series opening win.

Saturday seemed to begin the same way.  Sam Dyson pitched 4 innings giving up 2 runs.  Jimmy Revan, Jay Brown and Michael Roth held East Carolina in check until the ninth.  At that point, the weekend series turned in the Pirates favor.  After walking the leadoff batter, Michael Roth was pulled in favor of John Taylor.  Taylor retired the first two he faced, but then gave up 3 straight base hits to allow ECU to tie, and then win the game.  

 

Sunday started where Saturday ended.  Without hitting the ball hard East Carolina scored 3 runs on 4 hits in the first inning.  After that the Gamecocks were playing behind all day.  They never seemed to figure out starter Brad Mincey and were only able to get a few runs off the ECU relievers late.

 

What to take away from the weekend…Don’t make any reservations for Omaha just yet.  Dropping a series to a good East Carolina team on the road isn’t the end of the world and probably won’t hurt the Gamecocks much in the long term, but the Pirates exposed some parts of the team that need to be worked on.  The Gamecocks left 29 runners on base which they cannot do if they want a long post season run.  There are still pitching questions: a bad 9th inning on Saturday and a bad 1st inning on Sunday doomed the series.

 

Stars of the weekend…Blake Cooper 7 IP, 2 runs, 2 earned runs, 4 hits, 4 strike outs.  Kyle Enders 5 for 12 with 2 RBIs and he threw out the only base steal attempt of the weekend.  Tyler Webb pitched 4 2/3 giving up 2 hits, no runs and striking out 3.

 

This and that…Nick Ebert hit a double on his first at bat of the season.  Jackie Bradley, Jr. got a hit on his first at bat on Sunday.  Whit Merrifield had hit in all three games extending his hitting streak to 20 games dating back to last season.

 

Up next…Presbyterian on home on Tuesday night who is coming off weekend games against Mount Saint Marys and Davidson.  The weekend brings a series against Clemson, the first year of the new format.  This year, rather than the two home and two away games, the Tigers and Gamecocks will play a 3 game series, with one in Clemson, one in Columbia and one in neutral Greenville.  The Clemson series is always competitive, and this year should be no different.  

 

Check in with Leftover Hot Dog the rest of the week for more on this series.

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