South Carolina Baseball: Ranking the top-15 pitchers in Gamecock history
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Baseball’s No. 4 Greatest Pitcher of All-Time:
Greg Ward
A dominant force for Bobby Richardson’s Gamecock teams, Greg Ward (1972-1975) had some gaudy rate stats as the right-handed pitcher was one of the best pitchers in all of Independent college baseball. His career ERA is under-2.00, and his career WHIP is under 1.00.
What makes those numbers even more impressive for Ward, though, is that he didn’t earn them on the back of one or two strong seasons. Instead, Ward was massively impressive all four years he was in college. His freshman to senior ERA progression was 2.70/2.43/1.30/1.89, and his freshman to senior WHIP numbers were 0.85/0.82/0.86/0.93.
Had Ward’s Gamecocks belonged to a conference when he played, he would have been assured of spots on at least one All-American team in his career, and he might have received the honor multiple times.
Similarly to fellow Gamecock great Tim Lewis, Ward, despite his success, was lower on the totem poll than Carolina ace Earl Bass, so Ward is not as appreciated as he should be. He was a dominant pitcher and 1/3 of one of the best rotations in all of college baseball. Ward, Lewis, and Bass led South Carolina baseball to the team’s first-ever trip to Omaha and a National Runner-Up finish in 1975.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina, Ward had a brief career in Minor League Baseball.