Baseball Falls to Northern Kentucky to Close Series

COLUMBIA – The University of South Carolina baseball team fell to Northern Kentucky, 3-2, in the series finale on opening weekend of college baseball season Saturday afternoon (Feb. 14) at Founders Park.

The game was scoreless until NKU plated a run in the top of the fourth on a single and a throwing error. Reese Moore’s solo home run in the bottom of the fifth tied the game at one, but the Norse plated a pair in the sixth that ended up being the winning runs.

The Gamecocks started a rally in the bottom of the ninth. Beau Hollins walked to open the inning. After a strikeout, Moore doubled to right to put runners on second and third. Luke Yuhasz pinch hit and brought in Hollins on a groundout. Tyler Bak and Dawson Harman both walked but a strikeout ended the game.

Moore had three of Carolina’s five hits on the day. Brandon Stone was the starter on the mound and he struck out five, allowing a run on three hits in four innings of work. Alex Valentin had six strikeouts in 3.2 scoreless innings. The loss went to Cooper Parks, who allowed a pair in 1.1 innings.

POSTGAME NOTES

• Moore now has 15 career home runs between Iowa and Carolina.
• Valentin was the only Gamecock to pitch twice this weekend, as he earned the save in Friday’s season opener.
• Carolina won the season-opening series after winning both ends of a doubleheader on Friday. The Gamecocks have won 28 straight season-opening series.

UP NEXT
Carolina travels to Fifth Third Field, home of the Holy City Spartanburgers, to face Wofford on Tuesday night (Feb. 17) at 5:30 p.m in Spartanburg. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.