Widener pitches lights out as Gamecocks rebound from series loss
Taylor Widener never pitched after the seventh inning in a game before and never had more than seven strikeouts in a game. He can’t say that after Wednesday’s game.
The junior righty mowed through the Presbyterian lineup during South Carolina’s 3-1 win Tuesday, tallying a career-high 12 strikeouts in a career-long 7.2 innings pitched.
“It’s maybe the best I’ve seen Taylor throw since he’s been here. I hope that bodes well for us going forward. His curveball was outstanding,” head coach Chad Holbrook said. “I think that produced a lot of the strikeouts and kept them off balance.”
Widener earned his third win of the season behind lights-out pitching. He hovered around 90 miles per hour on his fastball and he said the biggest thing was his ability to throw his curveball for strikes.
“I felt like I had everything working tonight,” Widener said. “I was getting my curveball over for a strike to start off a lot of batters, which is something I haven’t done in the past. I think that was very helpful for me tonight.”
His only mistake came in the sixth inning when he allowed a solo home run to Weston Jackson to tie the game at one. The tie wouldn’t last long as Alex Destino would hammer a home run to straightaway center to give the Gamecocks a 2-1 lead.
South Carolina would never relinquish the lead after the sixth inning. Destino would finish hitting 2-for-3 with two home runs and two RBIs.
“He’s been the most consistent guy in our lineup all year long and he’s a threat every time he swings the bat to hit the ball out of the park,” Holbrook said.
Outside of Alex Destino, the Gamecocks didn’t muster much offensively. Excluding Destino’s two hits, the offense put up three hits and the only other run scored was on a balk with Jonah Bride at third base.
“Our quote today in the locker room was from Jackie after his night last night,” Destino said. “He said something like ‘Every time I go into the batter’s box I just try to hit the ball hard wherever it’s pitched.’ That’s kind of my approach. I was honestly going in there tyring to it the ball hard.”
Through three innings, South Carolina was being no-hit by Presbyterian’s starting pitcher Ethan Wortkoetter. The first hit came in the fourth with Destino’s first home run.
The first time through the lineup, Wortkoetter was throwing the Gamecock hitters for a loop, hitting only 76 miles per hour on his fastball. Destino said it was tough to come from seeing SEC arms to a “slowdown” against the Blue Hose, but for Holbrook, Tuesday’s performance doesn’t have much bearing on how the team will hit the rest of the way.
“I don’t put much stock in how we performed tonight because we’re not going to see 65-mile-per-hour off-speed pitches this weekend; we’re going to see elite, first-round arms,” he said. “When we’ve seen that, we’ve competed, hung in there and battled pretty good.”
South Carolina plays host to No. 2 Texas A&M this weekend, where they’ll try and right the ship offensively, but throughout all of this the team is not getting discouraged.
“Obviously we haven’t been putting up the offensive numbers we’ve wanted to the last few games; that’s not a secret,” Destino said. “Guys aren’t getting down on themselves, there isn’t a lot of negativity going around. Regardless of how we’re playing, we’re staying together as a team.”
Notes
--Announced attendance Tuesday was 6,514.
--Alex Destino has his second two-home run game this season (first came against Penn State in a 16-5 win).
--Reed Scott pitched 1.1 innings in relief and earned his second save of the season. It’s his sixth straight appearance when he hasn’t allowed a run.
--Marcus Mooney hit second in the lineup, which is the highest he’s hit since he batted leadoff against Charleston Southern on March 12.
