March 22, 2006
Columbia, S.C. – Right-hander Harris Honeycutt pitched six strong innings Wednesday night and South Carolina collected 14 hits and capitalized on six Furman errors for an 11-3 college baseball win at Sarge Frye Field.
The seventh ranked Gamecocks improved to 19-3 on the season while Furman dropped to 11-8. Honeycutt allowed six hits but only one run and struck out five with two walks to improve his record to 3-0. Patrick Arnett, 1-4, the first of five Furman pitchers, was charged with the loss.
Freshman shortstop Reese Havens had three hits, including a double, and drove in two runs. Chris Brown drove in three runs with a double and a single. Neil Giesler and Trent Kline each had two hits and two runs batted in.
Kline hit his second home run of the season in the second inning with Havens on base to break an early 1-1 tie. Giesler’s two singles stretched his current hitting streak to 14 games.
Kline stretched his current hitting streak to seven games but freshman first baseman Justin Smoak saw his nine game streak halted. Smoak did score a run after drawing a walk in the four run sixth inning.
Four relief pitchers followed Honeycutt on the mound for South Carolina and Furman’s final two runs came on a two run home run by Case Cassedy off Jeff Jeffords in the seventh inning. It was Cassedy’s first homer of the season.
Furman took an early 1-0 lead I the first inning when Andrew Greene singled and scored on a double by Jay Jackson. That was all the scoring allowed by Honeycutt. South Carolina tied it in the bottom of the first when Brown walked, moved to third on a hit by Campbell and scored on a sacrifice fly by Giesler.
Kline’s two run home run in the second inning put South Carolina in the lead for good. The Gamecocks added one run in the fourth, four in the sixth and three in the seventh inning.
Cassedy had two of Furman’s eight hits with two RBI. Six Paladins had one hit.
South Carolina’s defense played its 11th errorless game in 22 outings while Furman committed six errors.
South Carolina, 2-1 in Southeastern Conference competition, entertains the Florida Gators in a three game SEC series this weekend. Game times are 7 p.m., Friday, 4 p.m., Saturday and 1:30 p.m., Sunday at Sarge Frye Field. Florida is also 2-1 in the conference. Sunday’s game will be televised on Sun Sports.
