How South Carolina baseball earned convincing win over in-state foe Winthrop

Chris Dearing
·2 min read

Eddie Copper had a college baseball debut that he would just as soon to forget than rehash anytime soon. His second outing will likely erase that memory, at least temporarily.

Copper continued the early season success of South Carolina’s starting pitches with four solid innings to lead the Gamecocks to a 12-2 seven-inning victory over Winthrop in the first midweek game of the season.

Copper was the first arm out of the bullpen in the season opener on Friday night. He came in relief of Eli Jones to open the seventh inning with South Carolina holding a 5-1 over Miami (OH). Five pitches later, the bases were loaded with no outs.

The freshman right-hander from Ivyland, Pennsylvania allowed a single and hit the next two batters in his brief outing, three batter appearance.

That disappointment was washed away when coach Mark Kingston gave him the ball to start against the Eagles. Copper was decent in the fall and then arguably one the better arms in the preseason. That earned the trust of Kingston and his staff.

Copperrewarded that trust with four innings of one-hit ball. He did walk three with two strikeouts but more importantly, he threw 43 strikes on 70 pitches. He pitched out of a two-out, bases loaded jam in he second inning by getting a fly ball to leftfield. He retired seven of the final eight batters he faced.

Ty Good, the senior transfer from College of Charleston, earned the win with 1.2 innings of relief. He came in with bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning to replace Austin Williamson and he got a fly ball to Ethan Petry in right field that turned into a F9-3-6 double play.

South Carolina (4-0) continued to feature an opportunistic offense. They jumped on top in the second inning on the efforts of an RBI double from Tyler Causey and a sac bunt from Will Tippett that scored Causey.

Talmadge LeCroy, who went 3-for-3 with a single, double and home run, and Causey led the way offensively. Causey added a two-run home run and four RBIs on the day. Tippett, who had three RBIs without a hit, ended the game on a bases loaded walk.

South Carolina baseball schedule this week

  • Wednesday vs. Queens, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)

  • Friday vs. Belmont, 4 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)

  • Saturday vs. Belmont, 2 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)

  • Sunday vs. Belmont, 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)