South Carolina baseball: Wes Clarke, Brett Kerry named All-Americans

A couple of South Carolina baseball players were named All-Americans.

South Carolina’s 2021 baseball season came to an end a couple of weeks ago in the regional round of the NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks finished the year with a 34-23 overall record, and showed improvement under head coach Mark Kingston.

The team possessed a dominant pitching staff that enforced its will on opposing hitters, striking out 11.1 batters per game, a mark that was good for sixth in the nation. The Gamecocks also showed off some power in the lineup, blasting 1.4 home runs per nine innings, which was among the top 25 performances in college baseball.

Two players that were responsible for helping South Carolina achieve those feats were right-handed pitcher Brett Kerry and slugger Wes Clarke. Both were named All-Americans on Wednesday by the National College Baseball Writers Association.

Kerry started the season in the bullpen, being used in most cases as the Gamecocks’ closer. In that role, he thrived, posting a 3-1 record with four saves. Late in the year, though, Kerry was called upon to enter the starting rotation. The change didn’t affect his performance a bit, as the junior tallied a 2-0 record in four starting appearances. On the year, the righty finished 5-1 with four saves and an ERA of 2.15. Kerry struck out 84 batters in just 54.1 innings of work, and was South Carolina’s most dominant arm.

Clarke, on the other hand, made opponents pay with his bat. The catcher/designated hitter led the nation in homers, smacking 23 on the season. He also led the team with 55 RBIs, and tallied 32 extra-base hits on the year. Clarke was named a second-team All-American by the association.

The future for these two in Columbia is still undecided as both have the option of pursuing professional baseball. The MLB Draft takes place next month.