Gamecock Digest

Gamecocks Continue Winning Streak, Defeat Penn In Game One

South Carolina manufactured enough plays on the mound and at the plate to win game one over the Penn Quakers.

Andrew Lyon

Gamecocks Continue Winning Streak, Defeat Penn In Game One
Gamecocks Continue Winning Streak, Defeat Penn In Game One /

Mark Kingston and his squad have gotten off to a raucous start in the 2023 season, but on Friday night, they went up against their toughest test in the Penn Quakers. Facing off against left-handed pitcher Owen Coady and a formidable starting nine, Will Sanders and the batting lineup had to exert more energy to maintain an advantage in the game.

Sanders got off to a good start in the first inning, pounding the strike zone early and getting the Quaker batters to swing and put the ball in play for the infield leading to easy outs. 

The following inning, South Carolina's batting lineup would repay Sanders for thwarting off Penn at the plate early, having eight different Gamecocks reach base and scoring five runs thanks to a three-run homer by freshman Ethan Petry and a timely two-run single by Caleb Denny later in the bottom half.

Both starting pitchers would settle in for the next four innings, giving up just one run each and battling through self-inflicted errors that led to long, drawn-out counts. The contest would become more intriguing in the seventh inning, as South Carolina reliever Cade Austin gave up two singles to start the inning, with all of them eventually being brought home, one via a fielders choice and the other through a two-run homer by Ben Miller. 

Gamecock reliever Nick Proctor would eventually strike out a Quaker batter to stymie the blow. Eventually, catcher Cole Messina would launch a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth to bump the lead back up to three runs.

In the final inning, Chris Veach, who had come to the mound in the previous inning, managed to record three straight outs after giving up a leadoff walk to star third baseman Wyatt Henseler and gave the Gamecocks a hard-fought win in game one of the series. 

The seven-run performance ended a streak of five games where South Carolina had scored ten plus runs offensively. Still, it'll be good for the team to focus more on approaching each at-bat the right way to give themselves the best chance to win at the end of the day.

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Andrew Lyon
ANDREW LYON

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