USC tops The Citadel with strong starting pitching
Before the Vanderbilt series, South Carolina was looking for something to do in a pregame huddle, when pitcher Nolan Belcher suggested doing a standing backflip in the middle of a circle of his teammates “to try to get something going.”
“When I was 5, I started taking gymnastics like a lot of kids do — I’m not proud of it, but I did it,” Belcher said. “I learned to do a back handspring back then, and as I got older, one thing led to another. I’d do it on trampolines, off a diving board, and I guess when I was stupid enough, I tried it on the ground. And I was able to do it, so I’ve been able to do it for a long time.”
Against The Citadel on Tuesday night, Belcher didn’t want to do his typical backflip as he was the starter for the game, so left fielder Tanner English replaced him temporarily. The slight alteration of Belcher’s routine didn’t keep the lefty from impressing in his first start of the season, as the Gamecocks won 8-0.
Having tied his season high in strikeouts by the second inning, Belcher went on to throw seven strikeouts, giving up three hits, not allowing a run and walking just one.
“He’s had some good innings for us and hasn’t had as many opportunities as we wanted to give him,” USC coach Ray Tanner said. “We’ve been getting some pretty good distance out of our (weekend) starters, and he’s a guy that’s sort of been in the middle for us, and (Tyler) Webb, (Evan) Beal and (Matt) Price have been eating some innings for us up there. He’s been feeling really, really good — his [bullpen sessions] have been good — and (pitching) coach (Jerry) Meyers made the suggestion that we get him on the mound for this start.”
Belcher’s pitching was able to keep the Bulldogs at bay with a small 2-0 lead by USC. Though the bats started slowly, the Gamecocks were able to capitalize with two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the third, as center fielder Adam Matthews brought English home with a ground out. A double by shortstop Joey Pankake then brought in first baseman Christian Walker.
Hitting with runners in scoring position has been an issue for a USC team that had stranded 111 runners in conference play this season. Against The Citadel, a nonconference opponent, the Gamecocks left 10 on base, making it 288 runners USC has stranded this season.
“I believe that we’re a little better offensively than maybe we’ve shown,” Tanner said. “It was encouraging tonight. We took some good swings in there and had a big inning where we got some runs, so hopefully it’ll be a sign of things to come.”
The big inning came in the seventh, when the Gamecocks loaded the bases for catcher Grayson Greiner. In his first three at-bats, Greiner had a ground out, strikeout and a fly out. In his fourth, he launched a fastball into left center field for the first USC grand slam since a regional game against Stetson last season.
“Statistics show with two strikes, it’s much harder to get the barrel on the ball, so I’ve just been trying to be a little more aggressive early in the count,” Greiner said.
The Gamecocks will look to carry the momentum from Tuesday night’s victory into a game at Francis Marion with a sold-out crowd to open the new field in Florence. Tanner said Adam Westmoreland will get the start.
With Tanner being a big believer in momentum for college athletes, he’s encouraged that USC’s offense has been having better numbers lately, but he’s still not ready to say the team is where it wants to be at this point in the season.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Tanner said. “I keep telling the guys that we’re better offensively than we’ve shown. We’ve played pretty good defense and we’ve pitched pretty well, so that’s been solid for us for the majority of the games this year. Where we haven’t been consistent is scoring runs and getting enough hits, and I think we have a chance to be better than we’ve been.”