Gamecock Digest

Long Ball Helps Gamecocks Pull Away From The Citadel

Thanks to some help from the home-run ball, South Carolina's Baseball team was able put Tuesday night's game against The Citadel Bulldogs out of reach.

Andrew Lyon

Long Ball Helps Gamecocks Pull Away From The Citadel
Long Ball Helps Gamecocks Pull Away From The Citadel /

Mark Kingston and South Carolina's Baseball team were coming off an emotionally charged series win against their arch-rivals in the Clemson Tigers, one that could have easily been the perfect setup for a let-down performance against a scrappy team in The Citadel Bulldogs on Tuesday night. The Gamecocks, however, denied the Bulldogs the chance to make such a game occur, as Gavin Casas and other South Carolina hitters brought enough power to the plate to deliver the Gamecock faithful an 8-1 victory.

There wasn't a whole lot of action to speak of in the first thirty minutes of the ballgame, as Gamecock starting pitcher Eli Jones worked tediously to get into a rhythm while the Carolina bats were initially thrown off-kilter by the Bulldogs' starting pitcher in Conner Cummisky, who had a nasty dropoff with his breaking pitches, especially his curveball. In the second inning, however, Cummisky's over-reliance on his curveball would come back to bite him, as both Ethan Petry and Will McGillis took Conner yard on two-strike breaking balls.

Besides two doubles leading to a run being given up in the fourth inning, Eli Jones would be settled in for the rest of his outing, mixing in his slider and changeup well with a sinking fastball that kept the Citadel batters off-balance all the way through the fifth inning. The Gamecocks, on the other hand, struggled mightily to string hits together, as Sam Swgert and Ethan Fewell made South Carolina's batting lineup look silly at times with their mixture of pitches, striking out six batters while giving up no baserunners between the third and fifth innings.

This would change, however, in the sixth, as through both some small-ball by Carolina's batters and some unlucky errors for The Citadel, the Gamecocks would plate three runs to make it a 5-1 game. The following inning, with a runner on base, Gavin Casas would launch a ball into the Gamecocks' bullpen to effectively put the game out of reach, and capping off a solid night of quality at-bats for the junior first baseman.

Eli Jerzembeck and Nick Proctor went on to finish the game for South Carolina and gave the Gamecocks their twelfth win of the season, in a midweek game that fans know can never be taken for granted. Carolina will take the field again in Greenville later tonight when they take on the USC Upstate Spartans.

You Might Also Like:

Join the community:

You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top right-hand corner of the page. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook @GamecocksDigest & follow us on Twitter at @GamecocksDigest.

Published
Andrew Lyon
ANDREW LYON

Home/Baseball