Gamecocks Take Series With 8-3 Win Over College of Charleston

Feb. 14, 2015

SCORE BY INNINGS
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
College of Charleston (1-2)	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3	8	0
South Carolina (2-1)	0	0	0	3	0	2	1	2	0	8	11	0

VIDEO COVERAGE

Highlights

Coach Holbrook

Kyle Martin

Jordan Gore

Alex Destino

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Fifth-ranked South Carolina tallied 11 hits en route to an 8-3 victory over College of Charleston in game two of a doubleheader at Carolina Stadium on Saturday. The Gamecocks improve to 2-1 while the loss drops the Cougars to 1-2.

College of Charleston was quick to get on the board in the first inning as Nick Pappas knocked the first pitch he saw from Gamecock starter Josh Reagan over the wall in right-center for a two-run homer.

The Gamecocks answered with three runs in the fourth inning. After a leadoff walk to Max Schrock and a double from Kyle Martin, Madison Stokes drove in both runners with a two-run single up the middle. Connor Bright followed with a solo home run giving South Carolina a 3-2 lead.

The Cougars tied it in the sixth inning. Erven Roper reached base on a fielder’s choice, made it to third on Alex Pastorious’ double and came home after a pair of walks.

Alex Destino crushed a 2-2 pitch from Cougar reliever Hayden McCutcheon over the right field wall to reclaim the Gamecocks’ lead in the bottom of the sixth. Destino’s first career homer was a two-run shot that gave Carolina a 5-3 advantage.

South Carolina added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth inning. Destino and Bright reached base on a single and walk, respectively, before advancing on a passed ball. With both runners in scoring position, Jordan Gore roped a single through the left side, driving in both Destino and Bright.

Right-hander Brandon Murray earned the win in relief for South Carolina. Murray pitched 0.2 scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit. Right-hander Taylor Widener closed things out for the Gamecocks with 2.2 hitless innings of relief. He walked three and struck out six batters. Cougar starter Eric Bauer suffers the loss after giving up four runs, all earned, on four hits, two walks and striking out three batters in 5.1 innings of work.

GAME CHANGER

Alex Destino’s two-run homer in the sixth inning broke a 3-3 tie.

KEY STAT The South Carolina bullpen combined for 3.1 scoreless innings of relief with just one hit allowed.

NOTABLES

Madison Stokes first career hit and RBIs
Tyler Haswell made his first career appearance
Max Schrock tallied a team-high five walks throughout the series with the Cougars.
Alex Destino recorded his first career home run and the first multi-hit game of his career.
Taylor Widener tied his career-high strikeouts with six.

QUOTABLE South Carolina Head Coach Chad Holbrook

Opening Statement
“Well, we feel much better today than we felt yesterday at this time. I feel like we beat a really good College of Charleston team today. I never felt comfortable even though we won 7-1 and 8-3, I always felt like the game was in the balance. It was good to see us compete at the plate a little bit better. We’re still a little bit of a work in progress offensively but I think that with time we have a chance to be a really good offensive team. We kind of got lost in the games a little bit today, both emotionally and weren’t worrying so much about ourselves we were wrapped up around the team. When you do that you have the chance to play the way you are capable of playing. I was pleased with the way we played today, a lot of new guys got in there, and made contributions to the wins. From [Brandon] Murray, to [Taylor] Widener, and [Tyler] Haswell got his first crack at it, even though it really didn’t go his way. Madison Stokes had a big hit, and I love his presence. I love what Hunter Taylor did behind the plate, our catchers caught their rear ends off in both games today, and that was good to see. We’ll keep getting better, we’re going to come in here and practice tomorrow and keep trying to improve because we have a lot of improving to do. But, hopefully by the end of the year, we’ll look back at this series and think it was a key series for us. I think College of Charleston is a heck of a team and they are going to win 40+ games this season and win their league again, so maybe it’ll look good on our resume. We have the up most respect for Monte’s team and the job that they do, and if we’re lucky enough to win enough games, probably a pretty good chance we’ll see them again. So that being said, we’ll move on, we’ll take the series win against a great College of Charleston team when things didn’t look so good for us yesterday, and I look forward to playing again this week.”

UP NEXT

The Gamecocks host Furman on Tuesday, February 17 at Carolina Stadium with first pitch set for 4 p.m.

TWEETS OF THE GAME