Behind a 16-strikeout performance from the Gamecocks' pitching staff, No. 5 South Carolina secured a 4-3 victory over No. 25 Wright State Friday night.
After right-hander Clarke Schmidt picked up a pair of strikeouts in the top of the first, the Gamecocks gave him an early two-run cushion. Following consecutive singles by TJ Hopkins and Alex Destino, first baseman Matt Williams singled to center field to score both runners, setting a career-high for two RBIs in a single game.
In the bottom of the fourth, shortstop Madison Stokes pulled a fastball up in the zone out to the left field bleachers to give South Carolina a 3-0 advantage. Stokes endured a cool start to the season, going just 1-16 over the Gamecocks' first four games, but has collected five hits over the last two contests.
Schmidt tallied eight strikeouts through his first four innings, generating swings-and-misses by blending in different variations of his breaking ball and locating his fastball in all quadrants of the zone. A lot of Schmidt's success through the first four frames hinged on his ability to pinpoint his slider. Against right-handers especially, his slider started on the hands of the batter and then broke to the corner of the plate at the last second.
Schmidt's early dominance perhaps inflated South Carolina's 3-0 lead. With one out in the top of the fifth, Stokes dropped a fly ball behind the mound to set the stage for a three-run inning by the Raiders. Schmidt lost some of his precision working inside in the fifth and hit three batters in the inning. Wright State manufactured runs by scoring on a wild pitch, an infield single and a hit baseman.
"As a pitcher, my job is to go out there and get through that if we have errors or passed balls or whatever the case may be. My job is to go out there and work through that," Schmidt said. "There's a couple guys who I felt like they were maybe leaning a little bit more over the plate than usual, so I felt like I could get it in more -- so those batters that I hit -- I mean, that doesn't matter to me."
"We obviously didn't help ourselves there with a couple of passed balls, hit by pitches just a comedy of errors, but it didn't lose the game," said South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook. "Our guys -- like I said -- they stayed in the game, they kept their wits about them, and for that I'm proud of them."
Wright State threatened again in the top of the seventh, putting runners on the corners following a second error by Stokes and a double by Raiders' left fielder JD Orr. With one out reliever Colie Bowers entered the game for Schmidt and subsequently picked up two critical outs to help South Carolina escape from the jam.
Schmidt finished with 11 strikeouts and just one walk in 6 1/3 innings of work. None of the three runs he allowed were earned. His strikeout total tied a career best that he set in a win against Arkansas on March 18 last season.
After center fielder Danny Blair was thrown out stealing with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Hopkins reset the table for Alex Destino by drawing a two-out walk. Destino drove an opposite field double to left center to score Hopkins, granting South Carolina a 4-3 lead.
"I knew that was an extra base hit type spot, so I was honestly trying to drive the ball pull-side, but the pitcher threw me a pretty good sequence, got a fastball and I went with it and I was lucky enough to split a gap," said Destino.
Senior reliever Josh Reagan bridged the gap to Tyler Johnson, who struck out the side to close out the game. Johnson needed just 12 pitches in the save and displayed premium velocity, touching 99 miles per hour.
Next Up
First pitch for the middle game of the series is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday. South Carolina's Will Crowe will take the ball for the Gamecocks as he looks to build off a strong first outing in his return from Tommy John surgery, striking out seven in five shutout innings last weekend against UNCG. Wright State will counter with southpaw Zane Collins, who compiled a 3.02 ERA as a freshman in 2016.