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baseball Edit

Sophomores with strong showings in Friday's scrimmage

The South Carolina baseball team started its second weekend of spring scrimmages Friday as opening day looms less than two weeks away.

Similar to last weekend, the lineups were studded with young players. DC Arendas, Gene Cone and Marcus Mooney were the only starting upperclassmen.

Freshmen Ross Grosvenor, Chris Cullen, Brandon McIlwain and Danny Blair all started, but it was the sophomores who made the biggest impact.

Alex Destino and John Jones both homered off of pitcher Vince Fiori late in the game, combining for four RBIs as the Garnet team would win 6-2.

- Also see: Photo gallery by Paul Collins

After two dominant performances last Friday, starting pitchers Clarke Schmidt and Braden Webb were slow out of the gate, as they allowed nine hits and four runs in a combined 6.1 innings.

Schmidt continues to make his case to be the Friday-night starter, as he went deeper in this game than he did in other past scrimmages.

Aside from two mental mistakes (two balks in the second inning), Schmidt was able to pitch around a few hits and limit runs for the Black team.

Webb, a true freshman, was a little shakier. The righty is making a case to be a weekend starter after solid outings in fall scrimmages as well as last Friday, but walked four batters in less than three innings.

He left in the third inning after walking Marcus Mooney and giving up a LT Tolbert RBI double.

Brandon McIlwain, who started in left field for the Black team, finished his day 2-for-3 with a pair of singles and six putouts.

Hunter Taylor was also solid Friday as the starting catcher, going 2-for-3. He also had a great play at the plate, blocking a sliding John Jones to end the inning.

Both Mooney and Arendas started for both teams, trying to nail down their starting positions for their senior seasons.

With just three upperclassmen playing significantly in the field, the younger players are getting ample opportunity to prove themselves to the coaching staff.

It is a revolving door in the infield as LT Tolbert moved from his normal shortstop position to start at first base and normal first baseman Alex Destino played left field. Matt Williams also got time at second base opposed to his normal third and Arendas played both third and second base.

With the infield shuffled around, the usual suspects (aside from Destino) were in the outfield in the form of Gene Cone, McIlwain, Danny Blair and Clark Scolamiero. With Destino in the outfield, typical left fielder TJ Hopkins was designated hitter for the Black team.

Head coach Chad Holbrook is letting players find their roles on this team in hopes of finding where they can help come time for the regular season.

Aside from some of the seniors on the team, the opening day lineup is still being fine-tuned and has not been set yet. The team still has seven more scrimmages left until Feb. 19 to lock it in.

Scrimmages No. 5 and 6 are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s starts at 1 p.m. while Sunday’s is at 1:30 p.m. Both are free and open to the public.

- Also see: Photo gallery by Paul Collins

Starting lineups

Garnet: 1B, LT Tolbert; 2B, DC Arendas; 3B, Jonah Bride; SS, Marcus Mooney; LF, Alex Destino; CF, Clark Scolamiero; RF, Dom Thompson Williams; C, Chris Cullen; P, Clarke Schmidt

Black: 1B, Ross Grosvenor; 2B, Matt Williams; 3B, DC Arendas; SS, Marcus Mooney; LF, Brandon McIlwain; CF, Danny Blair; RF, Gene Cone; C, Hunter Taylor; P, Braden Webb

Scoring

B1: Alex Destino doubled down the right field line, Dom Thompson-Williams scored from second, 1-0 Garnet team.

T2: Clarke Schmidt balked to let Hunter Taylor score, 1-1; Weber Pike singled and Jonah Bride made a throwing error to score Matt Williams, 2-1 Black team.

B3: LT Tolbert doubled to deep right field, Marcus Mooney scored, Garnet team leads 2-2.

B5: John Jones homered, Dom Thompson-Williams scores, 4-2 Garnet team.

B7: Alex Destino homered, John Jones scored, 6-2 Garnet team.

Top hitters

Brandon McIlwain: 2-3; John Jones: 1-2, HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB; Alex Destino: 3-4, 2 2B, HR, 3 RBI; LT Tolbert: 1-4, 2B, RBI

Pitchers

Clarke Schmidt: 4 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 K, 1 BB

Braden Webb: 2.1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 0 K, 4 BB

Canaan Cropper: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 3 K, 1 BB

Matthew Vogel: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 K, 0 BB

Vince Fiori: 3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 K, 1 BB

Colie Bowers: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 K, 0 BB

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