Junior Taylor Widener has recently been named the Sunday starter for the Gamecock baseball team. He rounds out the starting rotation and will try to offer guidance to a young pitching staff and help get the program back on track after a disappointing 2015 season. I sat down with him to discuss the upcoming series and the composition of this year’s team.
It was a sunny Tuesday at Founders Park, just past 2 p.m., and the team was about to start practice. The temperature was above 50 degrees for the first time in three days, and it smelled like baseball. Players were trickling in from the batting cages while the first basemen practiced blocking up errant throws under the watchful eyes of Coach Holbrook.
South Carolina could be a program in mourning. Last season, the team went 32-25 and had a losing record in conference play, going 13-17 in the SEC. The season culminated with the team missing out on postseason play for the first time since 1999, and the days of back-to-back national championships in 2010 and 2011 had never felt farther away.
Instead, the mood was jovial. The team is flush with talent from incoming junior college transfers as well as a stellar freshman class that seems blissfully unaware of last season's struggles.
“I think last year was just kind of a fluke for us,” Widener said. “We had a few guys that were kind of a little out of it last year, and it might have cost us our season last year, and so this year I think it’s definitely going to be different.” Widener would know. His first season in Columbia, the Gamecocks hosted a regional in the postseason. The next, his team missed out on a regional entirely, giving him experience on both ends of the spectrum.
“We're gonna improve from last year, there's no doubt,” Widener said. Widener has made 40 appearances in his two seasons at USC, predominantly coming out of the bullpen. He had been tagged by many, including myself, as the leading candidate to anchor the Gamecock back line, but in a somewhat unexpected move, Coach Holbrook announced on Monday that Widener would be the starting pitcher for Sunday’s game.
So opening day will have to wait an extra 48 hours for Widener. “I’m just ready to start playing again,” he said, eager to get the taste of last season out of his mouth. He is ready to improve upon his totals last season in which he pitched 32 innings, struck out 44 batters and earned nine saves. He could be next in the long line of relief pitchers who have successfully transitioned to starting for South Carolina, a list that includes former stars like Jack Wynkoop and Michael Roth.
“I like starting just because that gives me time to use all my pitches,” he said. He will need to have command of multiple pitches if he wants to provide some much-needed stability to a young starting staff for the Gamecocks. It is something he worked on this past offseason. “Part of the game is hitting your spots, so I definitely needed to work on it.”
Widener is the lone upperclassman of the three starting pitchers for this weekend with sophomore Clarke Schmidt taking the hill on Friday and true freshman Braden Webb starting on Saturday. He is now being counted on to close out not just a game, but the entire weekend series.
The Gamecocks took a step backward last season and have a young roster this year, but do not think for a second that their goal has changed. When I asked what the team wants to accomplish this year, Widener did not hesitate. “Just the old team goal: Make it to Omaha.”
He did not laugh, and it was not a joke. At South Carolina, Omaha is the expectation, and that is where players who come here expect to go. It’s a new year with a new team, but with the same old mindset. Don’t call it rebuilding, and don’t even ask about not making the postseason. It’s Omaha or bust for Widener and the Gamecocks, and that is the way it should be.