re: Baseball Thread (46-18, 20-9) I SC vs. Oklahoma State - L 1-3

Soph C/DH John Jones is off to an incredible start. He has 17 RBI's so far this year. That's more RBI's than either Catcher (Koch or Taylor) had in ALL of last year. Those 2 combined for 25 total RBI's all last season.

Jones is leading or amongst the leaders for the SEC in several categories.
2nd in Batting Avg .542
t-1st in Fielding % - 1.000
3rd in Slugging % - .958
1st in On Base % - .656
2nd in Runs Scored - 11
5th in Hits - 15
1st in RBI's - 17
1st in Homeruns - 3
3rd in Total Bases - 23
1st in Walks - 8

https://assets.espn.go.com/sec/baseball/2016/lgplyrs.htm

He's first in walks? Guess HBP isn't counted towards that cuz Bride takes the cake in that category.

The beautiful thing is we have him for 2 years, since he's a sophomore.

Thanks Cayce!

Pretty sure if Widener or Webb struggle in the upcoming weekends you'll see Adam Hill potentially get a chance in the weekend rotation.

He's been far too dominant over his past 2 starts to not get a thought of being in that rotation.

I guess the great thing is that it looks like we might actually have depth in the weekend rotation this year. With the way Hill has been pitching, it looks like we can potentially count on 4 guys during the season.

the usual Lowcountry home crowd turned out for Carolina at the Joe. not quite a sellout, but by 720 it was plenty full. the Citadel student section and Mooney had a lot of fun tonight. Marcus had them all dangling from strings on his fingers, including their 1st baseman, after the HBP was called back.

Hill = nails. home plate ump was simply awful keeping the game moving especially with the little LHP who came in to relieve their starter.

sat along 3B line and had a good time laughing with/at our catchers in the bull pen handling the guys warming up. Johnson seemed loose and fine before he went in but it just wasn't his night. Murray shut down the rally though.

the wind coming in off the Ashley was probably the worst it's been in the past 6 games we've played at the Joe. USC hit some rockets off the bat to C/LF that would have been HRs in Cola but just died in the wind tonight. I think we're all gonna be happy we dumped Rawlings for DeMarini. ball was jumping off the bats tonight.

good win and solid tuneup for the weekend blood feud ahead.

Anyone else being cautious about saying something like, "hey, we got a pretty great team this year?"

Citadel was a good win, the other teams are meh to bad.

I am surprised our ERA and Opp Batting Avg are so good though, even against this competition.

I think the mindset of the two teams are the same. Basketball team plays good defense and gets their points the hard way in the paint.

I watched the Baseball team last night and pitching and defense kept us in it. The runs scored had a lot to do with good discipline at the plate and taking what was given.

If you watch the Gamecock Confidentials (you really should)

Holbrook says to the players before the first series, I think it's in episode 4 that this is the first year where he doesn't think we have holes in the team.

Due to our start I'm prone to believe him, but let's wait until this weekend to start judging this team.

Clemson by far will be the first true test for the team: they are starting their season strong, and will come into the series 8-1 after losing their season-opener. Plus we all know the intensity and focus rise when both team face off against each other.

I'm really liking Adam Hill thus far: Taylor Widener needs to keep the pedal to the floorboard if he wants to still be the Sunday starter by the time SEC play starts up, but Hill also needs to start getting ahead early in pitch-counts better thus far: he's having way too many 20-pitch innings thus far, even if he's closed them out well...