The baseballs were flying out of Founders Park on Saturday as South Carolina hit three home runs en route to the 7-2 win over VMI. This gives Mark Kingston his first win as the Gamecocks head coach.
The Gamecocks hit home runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings, one from Hunter Taylor and two from Madison Stokes. They were all solo shots, but they all helped extend the lead and give starting pitcher Cody Morris some comfort when he went back to the mound.
Stokes has been impressive at the plate during his first two games, going 4-for-7 with two home runs, two doubles and four RBIs. Kingston said Stokes put in the work during the offseason to be a much smarter hitter.
"He's worked really hard, everything we've tried to do with him, he's had a very open mind," Kingston said. "He got with Coach Current, I would say about two weeks ago, and just tweaked a little bit where his hands were and then we talked about the mental approach ... and he's just, he's run with it. He worked extremely hard all offseason and you're starting to see the results."
Taylor has also impressed Kingston early in the season, making key adjustments from last season both offensively and behind the plate. Having these two seniors play so well early in the year is motivating for the rest of the team.
The Gamecocks again got on the board early, scoring three runs in the first inning off of just two hits. South Carolina has scored seven runs during the first innings this season. The runs on Saturday came off smart playing at the plate, with four walks and two fielder's choices during the inning. They also improved on hitting with two strikes, which was a huge problem in Friday's loss. The first three batters in the Gamecock lineup faced two strikes, and the result was a single and two walks.
"That was an emphasis going into today that we needed to do a better job of battling with two strikes," Kingston said. "I don't think we did a good enough job last night. Guys made a little bit more of a commitment to cut their swings down today and we had more walks than strikeouts. That's what we want."
Morris got the win on Saturday and was dominating early. He didn't allow a hit until the fourth and faced the minimum nine batters through the first three innings. He threw 92 pitches in 5.2 innings and walked two batters, so Kingston sees room for improvement.
"The fastball velocity was elite, I mean it was 95, 97," Kingston said of Morris. "Command I would say was solid, not great not terrible, just somewhere right there in the middle. When he threw for strikes and could get ahead, he had no problems. The big thing for him is at that velocity, you just have to be in attack mode."
South Carolina and VMI are back for the series final at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Ridge Chapman will start on the mound for the Gamecocks, and Kingston said Chris Cullen will catch for him.