South Carolina Baseball: Final out-of-conference series ends in another sweep
By Kevin Miller
Already among the nation’s leaders in home runs and runs scored, the South Carolina baseball team continued their assault on baseballs this weekend. After beating The Citadel and USC Upstate in the mid-week by a combined score of 27-2, the Gamecocks welcomed Bethune-Cookman to Columbia to take their turn receiving punishment.
Friday night saw the home Gamecocks rip the Wildcat’s pitching to the tune of twenty runs and six home runs. Cole Messina (2x), Gavin Casas, Will McGillis, and Dylan Brewer hit the ball out of the yard in Will Sanders’ second victory of the season. The Gamecocks won the first game of the series 20-3.
Because of the likelihood of bad weather on Sunday, both games 2 and 3 of the series were played on Saturday afternoon. The first game of the doubleheader began at 1:00, and the second leg started 45 minutes after the final out of the 1:00 contest.
Noah Hall toed the rubber for the first of the Saturday games. He was not as dominant as he had been recently, but he pitched well enough to win as he held Bethune-Cookman to three runs over five innings. The Gamecock offense had an “off” game with just six base hits, but still, they plated seven runs, including a big fly off the bat of Braylen Wimmer. James Hicks collected the save as he pitched the game’s final four innings. Game 2 ended in an 8-5 Gamecock victory.
Game 3 started evenly as the game was 1-1 headed to the bottom of the second inning. The Gamecocks did what they do in the bottom half as Caleb Denny belted a grand slam deep to right field. Those runs would be all starter Jack Mahoney would need, as he cruised through six innings. A few more insurance runs were added for good measure, and the Yardcocks finished the sweep with a 10-3 victory in game 3.
SEC play begins next weekend as the Gamecocks will travel to Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs after a mid-week matchup with Presbyterian. The Sunday matchup against the ‘Dawgs will be the SECNetwork game of the week at 3:00. The Gamecocks are now 16-1 on the season.