After taking all three games in its series against Northeastern this past weekend, the No. 5 South Carolina baseball team will continue its early season non-conference slate as it hosts Davidson at Carolina Stadium on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The Gamecocks (6-1) are currently riding a six-game winning streak thanks to their combination of good pitching and solid hitting.
“It was a good weekend for us, anytime you can sweep an opponent,” South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook said. “We played pretty well ... We’ll take it and we’ll move on and get ready for a game against Davidson this week.”
Davidson (3-2) enters the midweek contest with South Carolina after going 2-1 this past weekend with a pair of wins over Michigan and a loss to Tennessee Tech.
After a less-than-stellar opening day start against College of Charleston, South Carolina junior pitcher Jack Wynkoop bounced back and pitched eight scoreless innings in the Gamecocks’ 10-1 victory over the Huskies’ in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader.
Junior relief pitcher Vince Fiori also picked up the win in Saturday’s second game along with freshman reliever Clarke Schmidt on Sunday.
Through seven games, the Gamecocks have a team ERA of 2.29, sixth in the SEC.
Holbrook was particularly pleased with the way Wynkoop performed.
“He gets in a groove, like he did today, you can look up and eight innings are in the books, and he’s thrown 85 pitches and you don’t have to use the bullpen and that can set you up for game two and game three,” Holbrook said. “He just had a real good outing.”
Throughout the series, the Gamecocks also had a large amount of run support to back up their pitchers.
South Carolina registered 22 runs over the course of the three-game series against Northeastern and are averaging 6.43 runs per game.
Led by senior outfielder Elliott Caldwell, five different Gamecocks are batting north of .300. Caldwell leads South Carolina with a .467 average, but not far behind him is freshman designated hitter Alex Destino.
Through 24 at-bats, Destino is hitting .458 and has shown his power at the plate as well with a team-high two home runs.
The Gamecocks haven't been defeated since losing to College of Charleston in the season-opener, and Destino feels that the team is starting to get into a groove.
“There’s more confidence in the locker room, there’s more confidence in the dugout and I think that’s really starting to translate to the way we’re playing,” Destino said.
The Gamecocks will carry that confidence into Tuesday’s game against Davidson, a team that went 29-19 in 2014.
The Wildcats have struggled at the plate through the early part of 2015 and are hitting only .224 as a team compared to South Carolina’s .306 mark.
However, Davidson’s pitching has been solid and the Wildcats’ collective ERA is 3.80.
With that said, Holbrook is very confident in his team’s ability to drive in runs.
“We’ve got the makings of a good offensive team,” he said. “We’re right at a 1:1 walk-strikeout ratio for the year through seven games. That’s pretty good. If we’re 1:1 over the course of the season, we’re going to have a good offensive team.”