Following the first weekend of team scrimmages, which he described as “sloppy,” head baseball coach Chad Holbrook was much more impressed with his team the second weekend of play at Founders Park.
“We needed to play and practice with a little bit more sense of urgency and heightened awareness,” Holbrook said following Sunday’s scrimmage, “[I think] we did that this week, so I’m in a little bit of a better place."
“We’re not perfect by any stretch right now, but we did have some good improvement and did some good things,” Holbrook said.
Along with the USC veterans, Holbrook said he was exceptionally impressed with freshman first baseman Riley Hogan and freshman right-handed pitcher Sawyer Bridges. Hogan started in all three scrimmages and found success at the plate with multiple hits on Friday and Sunday. Bridges pitched two innings in Friday’s scrimmage, tallying three strikeouts and giving up one earned run.
“(Hogan) swung the bat extremely well. He’s got a bright future obviously in our program,” Holbrook said, “Sawyer Bridges threw the ball exceptionally well. His velocity is up a tick from how he performed in the fall.”
As for the starting pitchers, Holbrook was pleased with both Wil Crowe’s and Clarke Schmidt’s outings, and it was announced Monday Schmidt will lead the rotation on opening day, followed by Crowe and right-handed sophomore pitcher Adam Hill. Schmidt had six strikeouts in four innings for the Garnet team on Friday. He gave up two hits, no runs and no walks. Crowe recorded two strikeouts in three innings for the Black team. He gave up an unearned run, three hits and two walks.
“They both threw really well,” Holbrook said, “Clarke (Schmidt) was probably as dominant as I’ve seen him here on Friday. It was a very, very clean outing with terrific velocity and great command of his off-speed pitches.”
Last season, Schmidt went 9-5 with a 3.40 ERA in 17 starts. The second-team All SEC junior struck out 129 batters, with opponents hitting .248 against him. After undergoing surgery on his right elbow in 2015, Crowe did not play with the Gamecocks in 2016. But the junior had a noteworthy freshman season, as he earned a 2.75 ERA in 91.2 innings and was named an All-American by Baseball America.
Catcher Hunter Taylor and infielder Chase Demars were both injured over the weekend. Demars, a junior college transfer from Harford Community College, broke the hamate bone in his wrist and is expected to be out anywhere from three to six weeks. Taylor sustained a hairline fracture of his collar bone after a foul tip. Holbrook said he doesn’t expect him to miss much time and is hopeful he can return for the opening series.
The Gamecocks will play another set of weekend scrimmages beginning Friday. The first game of the regular season will be against UNC Greensboro at 4 p.m. Feb. 17.