South Carolina brings the noise with big bats in the middle of the order

By Jerry Ratcliffe

When Virginia opens the NCAA Tournament at noon Friday in Columbia, S.C., the Cavaliers will be facing one of the nation’s most potent batting lineups.

The Gamecocks are led by Wes Clarke, a 6-2, 235, power hitter who plays DH/utility. Clarke, a junior, has blasted 22 home runs and has 53 RBI on the season. Clark is not South Carolina’s only weapon.

Brady Allen, a junior outfield, has a team-high 61 hits, including 13 home runs and 42 RBI. Andrew Eyster and Braylen Wimmer both have 11 home runs this season.

“South Carolina’s got one of the more powerful lineups that we’ve faced all year,” UVA coach Brian O’Connor said Thursday. “You’ve got a lineup with four players that have over 10 home runs, and they have a guy that has over 20, which is very rare to see in college baseball these days.

“You used to see that back when we were playing with the Fred Flintstone bats, right? But with these new bats, to see somebody that has over 20 home runs is quite impressive.”

That said, O’Connor and his coaching staff and pitchers are well aware of how dangerous a lineup the Gamecocks feature.

“We’re going to have to execute. [South Carolina] makes you pay when you make mistakes, and so Andrew [Abbott, UVA’s starter on Friday] and the other guys are going to have to minimize damage. What I mean by that is, they might get a home run. We’ve just got to make sure it’s not a three-run home run because we walk two guys or we’ve walked somebody and didn’t make a play. That’s the kind of lineup they have, so we’re going to have to be at our best.”

Virginia will start Abbott, who is ranked second in the country in strikeouts with 136 and owns the lowest ERA (2.63) of any qualified ACC pitcher heading into postseason.

Meanwhile, Abbott hopes to get strong run support from UVA’s order, which has produced more than enough runs to win in most of its recent games with the exception of last week’s 4-2 loss to Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

The Cavaliers, who have won 10 of their last 14 games, and seven of the last nine, will depend heavily on junior Zack Gelof, who is batting .339 (43 for 127), with five home runs, 10 doubles and 24 RBI. Virginia has an 18-10 record since moving Gelof to leadoff. Alex Tappen, who went 4-for-8 with two home runs, has a nine-game hitting streak, the longest on the team, and Nick Kent hit his seventh homer of the season in UVA’s lopsided win over top-seeded Notre Dame last week. He’s batting .378.

Freshman Kyle Teel has opened a lot of eyes this spring. A third-team All-ACC selection, Teel has reached base in 15 consecutive games for the Wahoos and has a seven-game hitting streak going.

“Kyle has been huge,” O’Connor said. “You look at early April when we started to make a turn, and what we’ve done offensively up to that point and since that point, and it’s pretty special.

“Right now we have the kind of offense that we thought we would have. That’s got some guys driving balls out of the ballpark. It’s going to take a lot of our guys investing into what is the formula and method that it has taken to win NCAA regionals.”

O’Connor has researched all of Virginia’s past NCAA regionals to research what has been the key to advancing. Of course, great defense and strong pitching have been important, but O’Connor also discovered that it has required several members of his batting order to step up to have exceptional games. It has meant three or four players having multiple hits, multiple RBI.

“This time of the year, when you have a chance, and you’ve got somebody down, you have to capitalize on opportunities to put somebody away,” O’Connor said. That’s the common theme of these regionals when we’ve won, so I’m looking for some of those key marquee players to rise up this weekend and have big days for us.”

Coaches used to think that winning the first game was a huge key, but O’Connor has shifted on that notion a bit and said that winning the first two games is more important. If a team wins the first game, loses the second, it’s the same as losing the first and winning the second.

“It’s pretty rare, a smaller percentage chance if you don’t win the first two, that you’re going to have a tough time advancing,” the UVA skipper said. “There’s no question that it’s a huge advantage to not only win the first, but also the second one as well. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. We’re focused on South Carolina, a great club, and we’re going to need to play fantastic baseball.”

The Gamecocks will start right-hander Brett Kerry, who owns a 5-1 record and a 1.90 ERA to go along with 46 strikeouts and 28 walks in 89 innings pitched.

Friday’s game will be broadcast live on ESPN2.