Examining options while South Carolina navigates slew of injuries
South Carolina–especially in its everyday lineup–has looked at times more like a MASH unit than a college baseball team.
The Gamecocks are dealing with a slew of bang-ups as they vie for a national seed with three regular season weeks left to go.
As South Carolina heads into a vital week with a game Wednesday and a series at RPI No. 4 Kentucky, let’s look at where the Gamecocks can go with some key pieces out.
For starters, let’s run down the injuries South Carolina is dealing with.
Noah Hall is out indefinitely with a back injury. Will McGillis is nearing the end of a six-week hiatus dealing with a broken bone in his forearm. Talmadge LeCroy missed Florida and most of the Auburn series with a hamstring injury.
Braylen Wimmer also has a hamstring injury that will keep him out for about two weeks, Mark Kingston said over the weekend. Gavin Casas played against Auburn after dealing with what Kingston called a “lung issue” against Florida.
That shapes up to be one of the Gamecocks’ rotation pitchers and statistically the best starter at the time of injury. Then the everyday starters at second base, third base and shortstop.
Casas played against Auburn, and when healthy an everyday bat in the lineup either at first base or at the designated hitter spot.
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So, let’s look at the options.
The Gamecocks showed a bit of what they could do to shift things around the final two days of the Auburn series. Michael Braswell shifts to short, which means Cole Messina shifts to third and then Jonathan French goes behind the plate.
Defensively, Braswell is a good shortstop and French has shown to be a solid defensive catcher. Messina hasn’t played a lot of third base at all in college. He really wasn’t tested against Auburn with just one putout and no assists in two games.
He will be this week against Winthrop and a Kentucky team that relies on bunting and speed to produce offensively. Kentucky has 23 sacrifice bunts in seven SEC series. The next highest teams–Georgia, Mississippi State and South Carolina–each have nine apiece.
They also lead the league in stolen bases (39) and steal attempts (47). So Messina, if playing third base, will have to field bunts on a turf field this weekend. If he’s at third, French will also have his hands full dealing with the run game as well.
If Messina is behind home plate, the options at third base are interesting. Ethan Petry played there in high school. But he has taken nearly every single rep in right field since the season started.
Carson Hornung came into college having played third base before shifting to the outfield. Will Tippett can play third as well, but he’s anchoring second base with McGillis out. Hornung has taken reps this season at first base.
If LeCroy can play defensively–which could be a big ask–he could play second and shift Tippett to third. Tippett can also play short, although Braswell is the more seasoned veteran at the position.
Those seem to be the options right now. The likeliest seems to be status quo with Messina at third base and French behind the plate.
French has been up and down at times this year, hitting .207/.303/.241 with four runs and three RBI in SEC play. He’s walked four times with 13 strikeouts.
Messina’s bat is going to be in the Gamecocks’ lineup, one of the team’s better hitters. Over his last 10 games, he’s slashing .394/.500/.868 with 10 runs, 14 RBI and more walks (7) than strikeouts (6).
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With Wimmer out, Braswell is sliding up to the No. 2 hole as one of the team’s better on-base and bat-to-ball guys. He’s hitting .306/.419/.611 with seven walks, 10 strikeouts and eight RBI in his last 10 with a .400 BABIP.
Over the last two games, hitting in the top third of the order, he went 2-for-9 with a pair of RBI and a walk to three strikeouts.
One thing that could help the Gamecocks is the potential re-emergence of Caleb Denny. Denny was in one major slump but went 7-for-9 with two RBI, two doubles and a 2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against Auburn.
If he can continue to take good at-bats, it puts him in left field and shifts Dylan Brewer to centerfield. That might make South Carolina take a hit defensively with no Evan Stone in the lineup but gives the Gamecocks another lefty bat in the order.
On the pitching side of things, the Gamecocks have been set there for a while. Matthew Becker has handled the game three duties the last three weeks in games where South Carolina lost to Vanderbilt and beat Auburn and Florida.
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He’s been what South Carolina’s needed the last three weeks, especially when he’s avoiding big innings. In 14 innings pitched, opponents have scored in five innings with two of those being multi-run innings.
In those two innings, Becker’s allowed six of the nine earned runs he’s given up in three starts. He has a 27 ERA and a 3.5 WHIP in those innings with teams hitting .384/.500/1.00 against him with a .600 BABIP.
The other 12 innings, Becker’s allowed just three earned runs–all on solo homers–with 16 of his 22 strikeouts and three of his five walks allowed over those 12 frames. He has a 2.25 ERA and a 0.75 WHIP.
Teams are hitting .146/.222/.366 in those innings with a .136 BABIP.
South Carolina’s best teams were predicated on that Win Anyway mantra, and the Gamecocks are going to rely heavily on that while working to get healthy before the postseason.
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