April 25, 2015
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Jordan Rodgers’ RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted Tennessee to a 4-3 walkoff victory over South Carolina on Saturday afternoon at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Gamecocks drop to 26-18 and 9-11 in the SEC with Tennessee 17-21 and 6-14 in league play.
Tennessee reliever Andrew Lee earned a win with two scoreless innings of relief. He is 2-0 on the year. Reed Scott suffered the loss and is now 1-3 for the season for the Gamecocks. Scott allowed one run on two hits in 1.1 innings.
Tied 3-3, the Volunteers struck in the bottom of the ninth. A.J. Simcox singled and Christin Stewart knocked a base hit to center to give Tennessee runners on the corners with no outs. After an intentional walk to Lee loaded the bases, Jordan Rodgers knocked a 1-2 pitch into right field for a base hit to score Simcox and end the game.
Simcox and Stewart both had two hits to lead Tennessee at the plate. Gene Cone was 2-for-5 to lead Carolina.
Elliott Caldwell gave the Gamecocks a 1-0 lead with a RBI single in the top of the first inning. DC Arendas drew a one-out walk and scored as Caldwell drilled the first pitch he saw from Bret Marks into center field for a base hit.
Carolina extended it to 2-0 in the second inning on Jordan Gore’s solo homer, his first home run of the season. Gore turned on the first pitch he saw from Marks and knocked it over the wall in right field.
Tennessee tied it at 2-2 in the bottom of the second. The Volunteers took advantage of two hit by pitches against Johnny Youngblood and Benito Santiago to tie the game. Nick Senzel’s one-out RBI groundout scored Youngblood and A.J. Simcox poked a 1-2 pitch into right field with two outs for a base hit to score Santiago.
South Carolina regained the lead in the fifth inning on Kyle Martin’s solo homer. Martin launched a 0-1 pitch to right-center for his team-leading ninth homer of the year to give Carolina a 3-2 advantage. Tennessee would tie it in the sixth inning on a two-out RBI single off the bat of Senzel.
GAME CHANGER
Rodgers single in the ninth inning with the bases loaded gave the Volunteers the victory.
KEY STAT
The Gamecocks had just two hits after the second inning, Martin’s solo homer in the fifth and a single by Gene Cone in the ninth inning.
NOTABLES
• Jordan Gore’s homer in the second inning was his first of the season and his second career homer vs. the Volunteers.
• Kyle Martin leads the Gamecocks with nine homers on the year.
• The Gamecocks’ loss to Tennessee snaps a nine-game winning streak to the Volunteers. It is also the first loss by the Gamecocks at Tennessee since May 8, 2009.
• South Carolina has allowed five runs or less in five consecutive games.
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Chad Holbrook
“It’s a disappointing loss because we came out with some juice and some great at bats against a real good pitcher. We had the lead and kind of let them back in the game and we didn’t do enough offensively the rest of the way to win.”
“(Marks) started throwing strikes; he started working ahead a little bit more. I don’t know if we were locked in (offensively) as much in the middle innings as we need to be to try to win a game. When you are a little bit short offensively, and you can’t put a lot of hits together, you have to play perfect pitching and defense. We played pretty good defense but we gave them two runs there in the second. In a low-scoring game, when you give two free 90’s on a hit by pitch and they both score, it gets magnified because we can’t overcome that from an offensive standpoint.”
UP NEXT
The rubber game of the series is set for Sunday with first pitch at 1 p.m. It will be televised live on the SEC Network and can be heard on the Gamecock IMG Network including flagship station, 107.5 FM, “The Game.”
