March 13, 2013

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COLUMBIA, S.C. – LB Dantzler homered twice for the first time in his career and drove in a career-high six runs as fifth ranked South Carolina defeated Davidson 12-4 on Wednesday evening at Carolina Stadium. The Gamecocks improve to 15-2 with Davidson dropping to 6-8 for the season.

Dantzler crushed a two-run homer in the first inning and added a three-run blast in the sixth inning. He has a team-leading six homers on the year and also leads the squad with 23 RBI. He went 3-for-3 at the plate. Max Schrock and Kyle Martin each had two hits as well. Schrock, Dantzler, Martin and Joey Pankake all scored two runs apiece. The Gamecocks had 13 hits in the contest.

South Carolina freshman reliever Curt Britt earned his first career win and is 1-0 on the year. He worked two scoreless innings without a hit allowed. Davidson starting pitcher Rob Caudill suffered the loss and is now 0-1 on the year. He worked two innings and allowed four runs on five hits with a walk.

Carolina broke ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the first with Dantzler’s first homer of the game. After Joey Pankake reached base on a two-out walk, Dantzler crushed the first pitch from Caudill over the right-centerfield wall into the Carolina bullpen.

The lead extended to 4-0 in the second inning. Kyle Martin led off with a single through the left side. With one out, the Gamecocks then executed the hit and run perfectly as TJ Costen bounced a base hit into left-center putting runners on the corners. Martin would score on a sacrifice fly from Graham Saiko. A two-out single to center from Max Schrock plated home Costen.

Carolina starting pitcher Joel Seddon was effective in his first start of the season. He worked four scoreless innings and allowed just two hits with two walks and a career- high six strikeouts.

Two more runs in the fifth inning increased the lead to 6-0. Saiko opened the frame with a walk, Schrock reached on an infield single and Pankake was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Both Saiko and Schrock would score on sacrifice flies from Dantzler and Grayson Greiner.

The Gamecocks reached double digits in runs with five more in the sixth inning. Carolina loaded the bases with no outs on a single from Martin, a base hit by Chase Vergason and Costen drawing a walk. Martin would score on a 6-4-3 double play. With two outs and runners on the corners, Pankake drilled a RBI single into right-center scoring Vergason. With two runners still on base, Dantzler struck again as he launched his second homer of the day over the right field wall to put Carolina ahead by 11 runs.

Davidson scratched across a run in the top of the eighth inning. With two outs, Andrew Barna walked, Ben Arkin singled and Barna scored on a RBI base hit from Michael Zeblo. The Gamecocks scored their final run in the bottom of the eighth on a wild pitch. Davidson added three runs in the top of the ninth inning.

South Carolina begins SEC play this weekend at Missouri. First pitch for the opener is Friday at 7 p.m. ET. Saturday’s game is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET with Sunday’s contest at 2 p.m. ET. All three games can be heard on the Gamecock Radio Network from IMG College including flagship station, 107.5 FM, “The Game.”