Wes Clarke Proud to Be in Elite Company
Wes Clarke is in elite company. South Carolina’s junior slugger launched a solo home run against Appalachian State on Tuesday, making him the ninth Gamecocks baseball player to hit 20 home runs in a season and the first since 2009.
“It’s really awesome,” Clarke said. “I’ve worked very hard, and that was my goal at the beginning of the year, 20. I feel like I have more in me.”
Currently tied for first nationally in home runs, Clarke may not break the South Carolina single season record of 29 set by Yaron Peters (2001-2002) in 2002, and he won’t catch Justin Smoak for the career record of 62 from home runs from 2006 through 2008, but he only needs one more to become the 27th player in program history with 30 or more career long balls.
For Clarke, being part of an exclusive club of Gamecocks, which also includes Peters, Smoak, Joe Datin, Nick Ebert, Tripp Kelly, Steve Pearce, Tim Whittaker, and Derick Urquhart, who have hit 20 or more home runs in a single season is pretty special.
“It feels great to be with those guys, and swinging it the way that I am. I plan on continuing it through the rest of the year and through the postseason,” Clarke said. “It felt really good to get past that 19 mark and get to 20. It’s just glory to God that He has blessed me with being able to do that. It feels great.”
“Everyone on the team is just so excited for full capacity… They’re going to be our tenth player out there on the field.”
– Wes Clarke
The NCAA changed the standards for bats a decade ago so they would perform more like wood in an effort to protect pitchers and reduce sometimes gaudy offensive numbers that college teams were regularly putting up. In short, it made it harder to hit a home run. Top that off with a tough schedule that has South Carolina ranked 11th nationally in RPI, while facing some of the best pitchers in the nation, there’s no doubt that what Clarke is doing this year is special.
“No one has seen more high-end games than we have,” said South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston. “Nobody has played a harder schedule.
“I think that’s a big number. Whether you’re in the big leagues, if you played 162 games, 20 is still a nice number for guys to get to. To think in what amounts to a 50-game schedule, and he has hit 20 homers; put that over the course of a Major League season, that’s 60-plus homers, which would put him in the Roger Maris category. It’s very impressive. He has worked hard for it. He is deserving of everything he’s getting right now. I’m really happy for the kid! I’m happy for us because we’re the benefactors of what he does with all those home runs.”
Clarke broke through last year in a season shortened by the outbreak of the pandemic with an SEC-leading 8 home runs in only 16 games. He picked up where he left off in 2021 after getting off to a ridiculously hot start to the season, belting eight home runs in the first six games, including two in a win at home over Clemson. He later had a nice stretch of five long balls in seven games. After cooling off for a big chunk of April, Clarke got hot again with five homers in his last 10 contests. Clarke noted that he and his teammates have been making adjustments late in the season, and he hopes that will carry over into the postseason.
“One of the things that we struggled with before was taking too many strikes early in the count,” Clarke said. “Once you get to two strikes, it’s a whole different at bat, so we’re trying to avoid two strikes as much as possible, hit a little earlier, use the whole field, and maybe not hit your pitch always. Maybe you have to hit something that you can’t hit out, but you can poke over second base, or you can poke backside. We’ve been working really hard with that approach.”
With South Carolina opening up Founders Park for full capacity for the weekend series against Tennessee for the first time all season due to prior COVID restrictions, Clarke is fired up for another opportunity to make something happen.
“I can’t wait to see all the fans in here just really cheering us on and getting loud,” Clarke said with a grin. “Everyone on the team is just so excited for full capacity. That’s something we’ve been waiting for all season, and we finally got it! They’re going to be our tenth player out there on the field.”
