Bullpen answering questions

Entering the season, few questions lingered about starting pitching: Clarke Schmidt was the Friday night starter, Braden Webb was the No. 2 and Taylor Widener would round out the weekend.

Where the real questions lay were roughly 300 feet away in the bullpen. But through the first nine games of the season, bullpen pitchers have answered every question asked of them.

Ten different pitchers have made appearances out of the pen through eight games. They have combined to go 3-0, allowing only 11 runs on 23 hits while striking out 39 batters in 31.2 innings.

Four pitchers—Josh Reagan, Brandon Murray, Vince Fiori and Matt Vogel—have yet to allow a run.

“We know whoever comes out of the bullpen, we expect to put up zeros. That’s our job, and we’ve been good so far. We just have to have this mentality that it’s a zero-zero ballgame,” said Reed Scott. “You just have to do your job, you have to throw strikes.”

Reagan and Scott pitched in Sunday’s 4-2 win against Penn State, maintaining a narrow two-run lead against the Nittany Lions. Reagan was able to get out of a jam in the bottom of the ninth with the tying run at the plate for a save.

Reagan and Murray followed up Sunday’s performance pitching a perfect 3.2 innings combined against The Citadel.

Reagan has three saves this season.

“I love the way Reed Scott and Josh Reagan threw. They were terrific,” head coach Chad Holbrook said. “They were almost flawless in a tight game. So that was good to see.”

In a season where starters have dominated for the Gamecocks, the bullpen has been almost unhittable in relief.

With the emergence of his almost “flawless” bullpen, it has put to bed answers about who will step up if one of the starters like Schmidt or Webb doesn’t have their best pitches.

Freshman righty Adam Hill said having a bullpen like this is good.

“It’s amazing. It’s nice to know if you come out with a lead, it’s going to be held,” he said. “It’s nice when you have guys in the bullpen who are going to lock down a win for you.”

While there is no definite answer yet for closer (Reagan has seen a lot of those typical closer innings) the middle relief is stepping up and making a name for them.

Holbrook said after Tuesday’s game Reagan isn’t the closer yet and he likes what he’s seen from both Scott and Murray in that role as well.

With 10 pitchers making appearances already through nine games, there have been just as many pitching options as that for field-position players. And for Holbrook it is not necessarily a bad thing.

“Our bullpen has some depth,” he said. “We have some different arm angles and different sides with rights and lefts, so we can matchup some guys. So that’s encouraging.”

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