By Trey McCurry.
TCI continues our preseason baseball coverage by taking a brief look at South Carolina. Stay tuned to TCI throughout the preseason as we continue breakdown the 2015 roster and 2015 opponents as we lead up to Opening Day on February 13th.
Head Coach Chad Holbrook, in his third season at South Carolina, will look to lead the Gamecocks to their 16th straight NCAA Tournament while replacing several long-time starters in 2015. Clemson and South Carolina will continue their heated rivalry with the sixth straight year of the unique home-neutral-home format with the neutral site again being Fluor Field in Greenville. The Gamecocks have played at least one game at Fluor Field each of the last seven seasons, going 9-3 in Greenville, while the Tigers are 16-4 at Fluor Field and have played at least one game at the facility in each of the last eight seasons.
South Carolina, members of the Southeastern Conference, finished 44-18 (18-12, 2nd place in the SEC East) in 2014. The Gamecocks faced two ACC opponents last season, sweeping a three-game series from Clemson and falling in two postseason games to outgoing ACC member Maryland. South Carolina also played 31 games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament, going 18-13 in those contests.
The Gamecocks welcome back 21 players from last year’s squad, with 13 position players returning and nine pitchers (including Taylor Widener) coming back. Kyle Martin, the top returning hitter in 2014, returns along with six other position players who started at least 30 games. The pitching staff is led by returning weekend starters Jack Wynkoop and Wil Crowe, who was named a Freshman All-American by both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball after last season.
2014 stats for South Carolina Returners:
| Hitting |
AVG |
G-S |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
K |
SB |
| Kyle Martin |
.336 |
62-62 |
244 |
35 |
82 |
11 |
0 |
5 |
38 |
22 |
28 |
2-3 |
| Weber Pike |
.333 |
14-2 |
18 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0-0 |
| Connor Bright |
.311 |
44-42 |
161 |
25 |
50 |
11 |
0 |
0 |
24 |
9 |
30 |
4-6 |
| Max Schrock |
.299 |
35-34 |
127 |
26 |
38 |
5 |
1 |
5 |
20 |
11 |
21 |
4-4 |
| Logan Koch |
.286 |
20-6 |
28 |
2 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
0-0 |
| Marcus Mooney |
.274 |
58-57 |
215 |
32 |
59 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
22 |
28 |
30 |
2-6 |
| DC Arendas |
.271 |
55-50 |
177 |
32 |
48 |
6 |
0 |
4 |
29 |
26 |
27 |
1-1 |
| Elliott Caldwell |
.254 |
39-35 |
122 |
10 |
31 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
12 |
17 |
4-6 |
| Jordan Gore |
.226 |
33-14 |
62 |
8 |
14 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
6 |
14 |
0-0 |
| Gene Cone |
.221 |
45-30 |
104 |
22 |
23 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
18 |
26 |
26 |
4-5 |
| Taylor Widener |
.191 |
18-12 |
47 |
6 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
13 |
0-0 |
| Patrick Harrington |
.172 |
26-16 |
58 |
5 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
1-1 |
| Zack Madden |
.000 |
5-0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0-1 |
| Pitching |
ERA |
G-S |
W-L |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
OBA |
| John Parke |
0.00 |
4-0 |
0-0 |
3.1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
.100 |
| Josh Reagan |
0.36 |
14-1 |
3-0 |
25.1 |
25 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
21 |
.248 |
| Cody Mincey % |
1.04 |
29-0 |
5-0 |
34.2 |
20 |
4 |
4 |
17 |
44 |
.171 |
| Vince Fiori |
1.37 |
17-0 |
1-0 |
19.2 |
14 |
5 |
3 |
10 |
18 |
.197 |
| Taylor Widener |
1.79 |
21-2 |
3-0 |
40.1 |
24 |
9 |
8 |
15 |
38 |
.170 |
| Reed Scott |
1.94 |
14-3 |
2-0 |
41.2 |
34 |
11 |
9 |
8 |
31 |
.224 |
| Wil Crowe |
2.75 |
15-15 |
8-3 |
91.2 |
76 |
32 |
28 |
19 |
59 |
.228 |
| Jack Wynkoop |
2.86 |
17-16 |
7-6 |
88.0 |
94 |
40 |
28 |
10 |
58 |
.276 |
| Matthew Vogel |
6.91 |
8-2 |
0-1 |
14.1 |
12 |
13 |
11 |
11 |
15 |
.218 |
% – had one save.