The South Carolina baseball team can say goodbye to its two-game losing skid as the Gamecock offense once again came alive to defeat North Carolina A&T Wednesday night, 12-2.
“Today could have easily been a game that you come out flat after the excitement of the emotion of this past weekend,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “I thought we did a great job of trying to play a complete game and try and get some momentum back.”
The Gamecocks entered Wednesday's game with just one win against rival Clemson and a loss from midweek game against Furman. This created motivation for South Carolina to come out and compete.
Despite the slow start against the Bulldogs, the Gamecocks were quickly able to find their rhythm as a team. Senior Jonah Bride showed his leadership skills and playing abilities Wednesday while competing against a resilient North Carolina A&T team.
Bride went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs in the win and ultimately was the one to start shifting the momentum of the game, allowing the Gamecocks to score a run in every inning after the third.
“I just want to help this team win,” Bride said. “But I thought that after we got that one guy out, the approach became much better, really everybody was taking a good at bat up there, it really showed tonight.”
It wasn't just Bride who made a notable break in the game for South Carolina — TJ Shook, who pitched and relief and got his first win of the season, also made major contributions to the win. Kingston acknowledged Shook’s improvements on the field, especially the ones that were showed against the Bulldogs in their victory.
“I've been very impressed with TJ,” Kingston said. “To me, he really commands the bottom of the zone, maybe as well as anybody that we have. His fast ball is up in that 91 range and he throws a lot of balls at the knees, and that makes you a valuable pitcher at this level.”
For Shook, Wednesday was a chance for himself to focus on his location. The redshirt made a pledge to himself to work even harder this season, which was defiantly shown against the Bulldogs when it came to his pitching. One of his main goals was to get ahead and get outs from this game forward until the rest of the season.
This win helped South Carolina get on the map again by plating 12 runs on 13 hits against North Carolina A&T, which will prepare the Gamecocks for the series against Princeton which begins on Friday. Despite their struggles coming into Wednesday's game, Kingston feels confident this was a good rebound game and shift into the weekend.
“I just think it’s what we needed,” Kingston said. "It is something that we need to build on and you hope that it builds in each of the hitters.”