USC has been there, done that against Vanderbilt's ace
"Sonny Gray is very special," USC coach Ray Tanner said. "He's just got electric stuff."
That being said, don't think the No. 3 Gamecocks plan on waving the white flag from their dugout tonight when Gray takes the mound for top-ranked Vanderbilt to begin what may be the series of the year in collegiate baseball, much less the SEC.
After all, they've seen him — and beaten him — before.
"It's nothing that we haven't seen before," said outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr., and he's right. USC faces plenty of stellar arms on a week-in, week-out basis. Besides, Gray has pitched three times in his career against South Carolina, and on average, has gotten touched up.
Gray is 0-1 against USC with a 6.30 ERA. Moreover, he has allowed as many hits (23) as strikeouts in his 20 total innings against the Gamecocks. Two of those outings came when Gray was a freshman, but the loss came last season in Nashville. The lessons learned from that success and the failures that came along with it have stuck.
"We faced him last year," said first baseman Christian Walker. "We've seen him before. We can't try to sit fastball because he's got the off speed to complement it."
Gray "slings it in there" hard, as second baseman Scott Wingo put it, but he also brings great movement to the table with a stellar breaking ball and quality changeup. Those assets explain his league-leading nine wild pitches, as well as what makes a 5-foot-11-inch kid from Smyrna, Tenn., a projected early first-round pick in June's MLB Draft.
"He doesn't have any weaknesses, and he's got plus stuff," Tanner said. "His breaking ball, his changeup when he wants to throw it — it makes it very difficult to get to."
That may be the case, but the Gamecocks have gotten to it in the past and are relishing the opportunity to do so again.
"I can't wait to face him," said third baseman Adrian Morales. "He's one of the big dogs."
Walker echoed Morales' sentiment, saying that all week (presumably beginning before USC's game against The Citadel, given the outcome), he and his teammates have been talking about Gray.
"All of us are real anxious," Walker said. "We've been talking about going out and facing someone that throws that hard. We're all really excited."
Now, USC finally gets to step into the box. Bradley said the key to success is to match Gray's level of competition and show the Gamecocks can hit with the same intensity with which Gray pitches.
"It's all going to be about who's tougher and who wants to win more," Bradley said.
It's funny Bradley put it that way because out-toughing and out-wanting is how USC won its last big-time pitching showdown. Last season, the Gamecocks' home matchup with heralded Ole Miss ace Drew Pomeranz came down to USC, and its own horse on the mound in Blake Cooper, wanting it more. USC kept it scoreless until Pomeranz, soon to be a top-10 draft pick himself, exited after seven innings. The Gamecocks then exploded for five runs in the eighth against the Rebel bullpen.
The characters have changed, with Gray replacing Pomeranz and Cooper's role being played by Michael Roth, who boasts an identical 7-1 record and SEC-leading 1.25 ERA.
"It's kind of like the same scenario," Wingo said.
Whether or not this meeting with an All-American (albeit of the preseason variety for now) plays out like that one remains to be seen. However, the Gamecocks will carry just as much confidence, if not more given history, into this one.
"We all know that we've got to get a job done," Bradley said.
It's No. 1 and No. 3. It's the two best arms in the SEC. It's a defending national champion against a team that has never been to Omaha but feels it finally has everything it needs to get there and be the last team standing.
"It'll be electric," Wingo said.
Just like Gray's stuff.
Or, in USC's case, the stuff of the guy they can't wait to face and, they hope, beat again.