15 Things: SEC Tournament Game 1
Leading Off
--South Carolina is winless in its last seven games in Hoover and has been outscored 60-19 over that span.
--Clarke Schmidt, who was bumped up a day in the rotation for the second straight week, pitched 4.1 innings. It was his shortest outing of the season. After going at least five innings in his first 13 starts, he hasn’t made it out of the fourth inning in his last two.
--Gene Cone, Jonah Bride and Madison Stokes each had multiple-hit days. The three combined to go 7-for-14 (.500) with a run and an RBI.
--DC Arendas started at second for the fifth straight game. Before that, he only started in one of the team’s 11 games during that span.
--The five errors were the most by the Gamecocks this season and the two errors committed by were a career-high. Marcus Mooney committed two as well, bringing his season total to 12.
On Deck
Schmidt on his performance: “I’m not concerned at all. It’s not the end of the world. It’s one start. I’m fine; my stuff’s good, just a few command things I need to work on.”
“When you’re coming into the postseason you have to be ready for anything. They moved me up today but that doesn’t affect me. I still have to be better. I’m ready for whatever’s next.”
“We’ve played great defense all year long. I don't know if I have the answer today for a couple of those errors. We didn’t have heightened awareness on plays and we pride ourselves on that. But, we’re not perfect either. We’ve played defense at a high level all year long, so this is a little out of character for us. We’ll try and get a couple things we saw today corrected and get back to what we do well.”
“We can play a great game tomorrow and not necessarily win because we’re playing one of the best teams in the country, which is typically what’s happened down here. We’ve lost to some really good teams and a couple we’ve played where we just didn’t get a big hit. It’s a baseball game. It’s the SEC Tournament and it’s a big opponent, so we should be excited no matter where it is.”
“I said that because I want to defend my players because what they did through 55 games is something I’m extremely proud of. We’ve come down here and played an RPI top six team, so we’re playing some great opponents. We’re trying to put ourselves in the best possible place in that conversation and I think regardless of what happens tomorrow, we’re in that conversation.”
Batting Cleanup
--Reed Scott pitched three innings giving up one run (unearned) on three hits. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in three straight appearances and has only allowed one in his last 10 appearances.
--Alex Destino had two RBI Wednesday, bringing his season total to 52. He leads the team in that category.
--Schmidt had seven strikeouts, bringing him to 115 on the year, passing Michael Roth’s total of 112 in 2011. He has the most strikeouts by a Gamecock pitcher since Blake Cooper struck out 126 in 2010.
--Schmidt also leads current pitchers at the SEC Tournament with seven strikeouts this week.
--South Carolina has now lost five games by five or more runs and are winless in three neutral site games. It has been outscored in neutral site games (Clemson, North Carolina, Ole Miss) 30-4.
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