Bradley, Matthews power USC
After starting the season playing as well as he had in Omaha in 2010, preseason All-American Jackie Bradley Jr. entered Wednesday night's matchup with College of Charleston in a 0-18 slump, nine days removed from his last hit.
All of that changed with one swing of the bat in the second inning.
With runners at first and second and the Gamecocks up 4-0, the junior outfielder hammered Cougar reliever Casey Lucchese's first pitch of the game over the left field wall, snapping his five-game hitless streak and extending the lead by three. It proved to be more than his team would need, as No. 4 South Carolina proceeded to crush the Cougars 24-4.
"Sometimes in this game you're surprised by the outcome, and tonight was one of those games," said coach Ray Tanner. "College of Charleston is very good. We had a couple of big innings early. We probably had the best at-bats we've had in a long time. I'm very happy to win, and obviously surprised at the number of runs that we scored."
Carolina's offensive barrage began early in the second. Following an Adrian Morales single, catcher Brady Thomas put the Gamecocks on the board with a two-run shot to right, marking his third home run of the year. Four batters later, after Evan Marzilli walked and Scott Wingo was hit by a pitch, outfielder Adam Matthews belted a double into left, scoring both runners to make it 5-0.
Bradley, who finished the game 2-4, added his three-run homer moments later, capping off USC's seven-run inning.
"I knew I was struggling and I needed to make some changes," Bradley said. "I feel like I was getting deep in counts, trying to find a pitch I could handle. I finally found a groove a little bit, and I'm glad to be back in it."
As impressive as the second was, however, the third inning proved to be even more productive for South Carolina. Coming to the plate with the bases loaded, Wingo slapped a two-RBI double down the right-field line to improve the lead to 9-0. Three pitches later, Matthews added three more with a home run to left-center. Matthews, who went 3-6 on the night, hit another homer in the sixth and finished with a career-high eight RBIs.
"In the last several games, Adam has put together better at-bats," Tanner said. "He started to walk a little bit, he started to get out front and hit some pitches in an aggressive fashion. He's been outstanding. We need for him to not necessarily have the night he had tonight, but to run, get on base and cause some havoc."
The Gamecocks scored another run on a Thomas walk with the bases loaded, then added a pair more on a two-RBI double from designated hitter Jake Williams. Charleston finally got out of the inning with a Marzilli strikeout a play later, ending an eight-run rally that extended Carolina's lead to 15-0.
While the offense continued to erupt, South Carolina right-hander Colby Holmes provided a shining performance of his own. Making his first start of the season, the Conway native finished with six innings of work and tied a career-high with six strikeouts en route to earning his second win in seven days.
"[Holmes] pitched well against a quality team," Tanner said. "That's one of the best hitting lineups we've faced to this point. Their batting average from three or four guys in that lineup is imposing. I would've liked to have seen him finish a little better than he did, but he'd been out there for a while."
The Cougars finally pushed one across on a Rob Kral home run in the sixth and went on to score two in the seventh and one in the eighth, but it was far from enough to dig out of the hole. Carolina saw all nine starters hit safely over the course of the rout, as well as pinch hitters Robert Beary, Michael Roth and Jake Watson. Seven players also finished with at least two RBIs. Arguably the most valuable stat, however, was the use of only two pitchers, with right-hander Patrick Sullivan coming on in relief.
"It's so nice to have a game where you pitch two guys," Tanner said. "We didn't have to get John Taylor up tonight. Matt Price was available, but he didn't have to get up. You need some rest. You need to back off a little bit. That was nice. We've got a better chance to win [against Rhode Island on Wednesday] because those guys pitched nine innings. We've got guys that are rested now."