South Carolina baseball: more changes coming for pitching staff

South Carolina baseball is tweaking the starting rotation.

The South Carolina baseball team is in a funk, having lost six of its last eight contests. As head coach Mark Kingston looks to provide the team with a spark, he’s making some changes to the Gamecocks’ pitching staff that will not only affect the starting rotation, but the bullpen, too.

Last weekend, South Carolina moved usual Friday night starter Thomas Farr back to the Sunday spot, while having Brannon Jordan and Will Sanders slide up a day. The Gamecocks did pick up the win in that series finale with Farr on the mound, but the team dropped the first two matchups to lose their third straight SEC series.

Jordan pitched well enough to win, but the offense and bullpen let him down in what would eventually become a 9-0 blowout. Sanders, on the other hand, was shelled for five runs over 2.1 innings of work. It was his third consecutive outing in which he allowed four earned runs or more, while pitching five frames or less. His ERA in those last three starts is a combined 11.57, with the Gamecocks dropping all three contests.

To give the freshman a break, Kingston will move him back to the bullpen, where he began the year. Top relief pitcher, and possibly the staff’s most dominant arm Brett Kerry will take over in a starting role.

Kerry has yet to start a game this season, but he does have five appearances of three innings or more. Those appearances have come against some of the Gamecocks’ stiffest competition, in Clemson, Vanderbilt, Missouri, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. He pitched six innings in relief last Sunday versus the Bulldogs, picking up the win in an extra inning thriller.

Kerry has struck out 65 batters in just 36 innings, posting a 3-1 record with four saves. Though he’s not made a starting appearance in 2021, the junior does have four career starts under his belt, so he’s not new to the situation. The Gamecocks need a spark in order to break out of their current funk. Hopefully adding Kerry to the rotation will help, but if the offense doesn’t pick things up (13th in the SEC in hitting), the change won’t matter.