The 2021 South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team represented the University of South Carolina in the 2021 NCAA Division I baseball season. The 2021 season marked the Gamecocks' 128th overall. The Gamecocks played their home games at Founders Park, and were led by fourth year head coach Mark Kingston.
Personnel
Roster
Coaching staff
Opening Day lineup
Regular season
February: undefeated start and Series win over Clemson, Clarke named player of the month Dayton (Opening day)
South Carolina opened its season with a 12–1 drubbing of Dayton, it was their first game since March 10, 2020. Thomas Farr threw 8 strikeouts and allow only one run. Freshman relivers Cotto, Phipps, and Mahoney each pitched one scoreless inning. Junior Wes Clarke would go 3–4 with 2 HR's and 5 RBI in game 2 of the series. Wimmer, Burgess, and Brady Allen also each homered in a 12–5 win over the Flyers. Game 3 saw the Gamecocks complete the sweep after a 4 run eight inning led by junior David Mendham's bases clearing double. The Dayton series was the first time the two schools have ever met.
vs. Clemson (Greenville)
The Gamecocks would go on to route Winthrop 12–4, behind Wes Clarke's three home runs, bringing his 4-game total to 6 HR's, with a .749 batting avg. 12 RBI, and a 2.308 slugging pct. Clarke would earn National player of the week honors. South Carolina faced their first test vs. Clemson on February 27, after the opening game of the series was postponed. Wes Clarke opened things up with an RBI single, Clemson tied things up at 2 with a home run in the ninth, sending the games to extra innings. Freshman reliever Will Sanders got out of a first and second no out jam in the top of the 11th, and Andrew Eyster hit a game winning double in the bottom of the inning, after a Brady Allen double.
Clemson
Game 2 of the series would also prove a thrilling one, after Clemson opened with a first inning run, Wes Clarke hit his 7th HR in the 3rd to tie the game at 1. In the 5th, Clemson took the lead 3–1 after a two run double, the Gamecocks quickly responded in the bottom half highlighted by Wes Clarke's 8th home run in 6 games, a three run shot to put the Gamecocks in the lead 5–3. The two teams would go on to trade leads, culminating in a 7–7 tie heading into the 9th. After Will Sanders got out of a jam in the top of the inning, Andrew Eyster came through with his second straight walk-off hit, with a single to score Clark and to clinch the series win.
Wes Clarke would be named national player of the month for February, after finishing batting .636 with 8 home runs, 17 RBI and a 1.818 slugging percentage.
March: Texas series, start of SEC play
Mercer
After another midweek crushing of Winthrop 19–8, The Gamecocks would sweep Mercer with dominate pitching (5–1, 4–0, 1–0) allowing just one run the entire series, combining for 44 strikeouts. South Carolina's 10–0 start is the best start since the 2016 team, who then went on to win 20 conference games and win the SEC East. South Carolina has had a ton of great starts to seasons in its history, most notably in 2000 when Ray Tanner's team started off 22–0, and also starting out 18–0 in 2004. Legendary coaches Bobby Richardson and June Raines, also each had seasons where they started out with 13 wins.
at Texas
South Carolina traveled to Austin, Texas after starting the season 11–0 to face the legendary Longhorns in a three-game set. The Gamecocks would go on to be swept losing by a combined total of 6–15.
at Vanderbilt
The Gamecocks took one of three to open up conference play vs. Vanderbilt, losing the first two games 2–3, 0–5, and winning the third 6–5.
Florida
The Gamecocks won their first SEC home game in a five-hour thriller, that culminated with a Andrew Eyster game tying home run in the 14th, when the Gamecocks were down to their final strike. In that same inning, Colin Burgess would hit a walk off double scoring Jeff Heinrich who got on base via a single, to win the game 9–8.
Wes Clarke hit his NCAA leading 12th home run to clinch South Carolina's first series win over Florida since 2011.
Brady Allen homered twice, Clarke homered to improve his NCAA best HR total to 13, Sanders, Bosnic, Kerry struck out 14 to help the Gamecocks earn their first SEC sweep of the season against the #5 ranked Gators.
April: Georgia, LSU, Arkansas series
at Georgia
South Carolina won their first SEC road series, taking 2 out of 3 from Georgia.
Missouri
After dropping the first game in the series 1–7, the Gamecocks bounced back in Game 2, winning 11–1. In Game 3 of the series, the Gamecocks won 13–4.