Hopkins HR, big first inning propels Gamecocks past Winthrop
In every practical sense, all of the drama in Wednesday’s South Carolina-Winthrop baseball battle evaporated before most of the sparse crowd had settled into their seats.
Highlighted by freshman T.J. Hopkins’ titanic three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the first inning, the Gamecocks scored six runs in the opening frame and added two more runs in the second, cruising to an impressive 16-4 victory over Winthrop at wind-swept Founders Park.
The Gamecocks improved to 5-0 on the season. They host Penn State in a three-game weekend series beginning Friday at 4 p.m. Clarke Schmidt will start Game 1 for the Gamecocks.
“It was a good win for us,” USC coach Chad Holbrook said. “We told the guys after the game that hopefully the win will mean something later in the year from an RPI standpoint. Winthrop won 40 games a year ago and have a lot of guys back. They are picked to finish pretty high in the Big South.”
Benefitting from three walks, two hit batters and a balk from Winthrop pitchers, the Gamecocks required only foiur hits to score the eight runs in the first two innings.
Hopkins delivered the key blow, a crushing a three-run homer onto the concourse beyond the fence in left-center for his first career round-tripper, capping USC’s six-run first inning.
Earlier, the Gamecocks scored the first three runs of the game on a fielder’s choice groundout, a balk and RBI single by freshman catcher Chris Cullen.
An inning later, Alex Destino snapped out of his 2-for-18 slump beginning the season with a RBI single into right field. Moments later, he was on the back end of a double steal which saw Jonah Bride race home from third base for an 8-0 lead.
Destino finished 3-for-4 with four RBI and two runs scored.
USC added three runs in the bottom of the sixth on a bases loaded walk to Destino, sacrifice fly and Hopkins’ RBI single. Five runs in the bottom of the seventh increased the lead to 16-2.
Hopkins and fellow true freshman L.T. Tolbert combined to go 4-of-6 at the plate with seven RBI, three runs scored and a walk.
“L.T. and T.J. work extremely hard. They are winners,” Holbrook said. “They love to play, and they play with some fire, energy and emotion. Even though they are freshmen, that is contagious. It filters through our dugout and locker room. We’ve only played five games, but I certainly like what I see from those guys.”
Redshirt sophomore Canaan Cropper (3 hits, 8 strikeouts, 2 walks) made his second career start for the Gamecocks and worked the first 3.2 innings before giving way to Tyler Haswell, who worked the next 3.0 innings, allowing two hits and one run.
“I was very proud of Canaan Cropper,” Holbrook said. “Those weren’t easy conditions to pitch in. He and Tyler Haswell pitched outstanding. It was hard conditions to play, especially pitch and field.
The quartet of Vince Fiori (0.1), Matt Vogel (1.0), Tyler Johnson (0.1) and Brandon Murray (0.2) recorded the final seven outs in the rout.
NOTES
-- Cropper gets his first career win and sets a new career high with eight strikeouts.
-- Destino tied his career high with four RBI. It’s his fourth career four-RBI game. Destino rebounded from a 2-for-17 start to go 3-for-4 Wednesday. Holbrook said Destino gets himself out most of the time swinging at balls saying, he’ll be “one of the best hitters in the country if he swings at pitches he can handle.”
--The South Carolina bullpen gave up its first runs of the year against Winthrop after starting the season with an 14 scoreless inning streak where they allowed only six hits, four walks while striking out 14 batters.
--Jared Williams collected his first career hit with a single in the seventh inning. Holbrook was obviously pleased: “No one works harder than that kid. I’ve coached for 20 years and if I coach for 20 more, I’ll never coach a kid as good as Jared Williams.”
--Tyler Haswell was the winning pitcher in his second appearance of the season.
--The Gamecocks committed two errors and had a few bobbled balls in the field. Holbrook said he’s not worried about the miscues: “We can play defense. I think we can play defense with anybody. It was hard conditions out there.”
--The 16 runs represented South Carolina’s highest run total of the season and second game this year scoring more than 10 runs.
--Seven of the nine starters scored runs, with John Jones and Jonah Bride each crossing the plate a game-high three times.
--USC's 15 hits are the most by the Gamecocks this season. It’s the third double-digit hit game this year.
HOW THE RUNS SCORED
USC 1st – Mooney walked, Thompson-Williams flied to left, Jones singled to left, Bride walked, Destino reached on fielder’s choice (3-6)(Run scores, RBI), Jones scored and Destino advanced to second on balk, Cullen singled to left-center (RBI), Tolbert hit by pitch, Hopkins homered to left-center (3 RBI), Cone flied to left. SIX RUNS, THREE HITS (USC 6-0).
USC 2nd – Mooney walked, Thompson-Williams struckout, Jones flied to center, Bride walked, Destino singled to right (RBI), Bride scores from third on double steal, Cullen struckout. TWO RUNS, ONE HIT (USC 8-0).
WIN 4th – Gonzalez doubled to right, Whitley grounded out, Lowrie singled to center (RBI), Spires struckout, Edwards walked, <HASWELL FOR CROPPER>, Sullivan grounded into fielder’s choice (4-6). ONE RUN, TWO HITS (USC 8-1).
USC 6th – Thompson-Williams singled to center, Jones singled to right, Bride hit by pitch, Destino walked (RBI), Cullen struckout, Tolbert hit sacrifice fly to left (RBI), Hopkins singled to center (4 RBI), Cone lined to second. THREE RUNS, THREE HITS (USC 11-1).
WIN 7th – Edwards flied to center, Parker (PH) singled to left, Asbill flied out to right, Thomas singled to center, Paulsen reached on fielding error (E3)(run scored), Gonzalez grounded out to third. ONE RUN, TWO HITS (USC 11-2).
USC 7th – Mooney grounded to catcher, Thompson-Williams walked, Jones walked, Bride hit by pitch, Destino singled to center (RBI), Cullen grounded to shortstop (RBI), Tolbert singled to right (2 RBI), Scolamiero (PH) singled to left, J. Williams singled to left, Mooney reached on fielder’s choice and run scored on fielding error (E6), Blair grounded to first. FIVE RUNS, FOUR HITS (USC 16-2).
WIN 9th – Parker struckout swinging, Davis walked, Fite (PH) singled to center, English (PH) singled to left, Mulkey struckout, Lipscomb singled to center (2 RBI), Penas singled to shortstop, Spires grounded out to pitcher. TWO RUNS, FOUR HITS (USC 16-4). GAME OVER.
(Collyn Taylor contributed to this report)
