South Carolina smashes four homers to overpower East Tennessee State, earn 30th win

Jordan Kaye
Sam Wolfe/Special To The State

There were big changes to South Carolina’s lineup last weekend.

Ethan Petry moved from right field to first base. Gavin Casas, who was at first, moved to third. Talmadge LeCroy slid over from third to shortstop while Will Tippett is in concussion protocol. Austin Brinling started in center and shined at the plate. And senior Dalton Reeves started twice at DH and tallied 3 RBIs.

The result: South Carolina took two of three from No. 4 Kentucky last weekend and, using much of the same lineup, walloped East Tennessee State 15-2 on Wednesday night to earn its 30th win of the season.

The Gamecocks’ bats, often lamented this season for freezing up with runners in scoring position, are getting toasty. South Carolina (30-14) scored 29 runs in its three games against Kentucky before scoring 14 in the first four innings Wednesday against ETSU (27-15).

“The fact we won 15-2 and gave up three hits,” said USC head coach Mark Kingston, “had 14 ourselves — just thrilled with what that team looked like tonight.”

South Carolina, which came into the game tied for ninth in the SEC in home runs (63) smashed four long balls against the Buccaneers while six Gamecocks pitchers combined to allow just eight baserunners.

South Carolina found a convenient way to stop leaving runners on base: Keep clearing the bases.

“(The offense) is much-improved,” Kingston said. “Some of it is personnel. Some of it is preparation. Some of it is confidence. It’s a lot of different things, but right now it’s the kind of offense we hoped to have had going into the year.”

Petry got the barrage going early. He turned on the first pitch he saw and sent it nearly 400 feet over the center-field fence. It was the sophomore’s 16th dinger of the season, putting him in range of last year’s total (25).

In the fourth, the Gamecocks decided to take batting practice, trying to see who could blast one the farthest.

First up was Kennedy Jones, who launched a no-doubter over the visitors bullpen. It was a three-run shot but only 393 feet. Petry still had him beat.

Reeves watched that jack from the on-deck circle. One has to imagine he watched that ball sail out of Founders Park and thought, “Watch this.” Two pitches later, Reeves sent a ball over the other bullpen. Same velocity, just farther — 410 feet.

A few minutes later, just as it seemed the batting practice was wrapping up, Cole Messina stepped to the plate with two runners on.

Messina drove a high fastball the other way and it sailed 367 feet over the right-field fence.

In that fourth inning, eight South Carolina runs scored. Perhaps even better for the Gamecocks, no runners were stranded.

“Offensive production has been very important to us for the past few months but we haven’t been producing,” Petry said. “But once we found it, we’re just gonna ride with this and keep going.”

SOUTH CAROLINA BASEBALL THIS WEEK

  • Friday: at Missouri, 7 pm (SEC Network Plus)

  • Saturday: at Missouri, 4 pm (SEC Network Plus)

  • Sunday: at Missouri, 2 pm (SEC Network Plus)

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