April 14, 2002
NASHVILLE, TN – South Carolina hit five home runs Sunday, two by Brian Buscher and a grand slam by Garris Gonce, to outscore Vanderbilt 20-13 and sweep a three game Southeastern Conference series from the Commodores for the fifth consecutive season.
The seventh ranked Gamecocks have defeated Vanderbilt 17 consecutive times dating back to 1997. South Carolina improved its record to 28-8, 9-5 in the SEC and moved a game and a half ahead of Georgia and Florida in the SEC Easter Division race. Georgia lost to Louisiana State and Florida to Tennessee Sunday. Vanderbilt evened its record at 15-15 and is 3-10 in the conference.
Chris Spigner, the second of four South Carolina pitchers, was the winner to improve his record to 4-0. Chris Maultsby, 0-2, the second of seven Vanderbilt pitchers, took the loss.
South Carolina scored six runs in the top of the first inning on the Grand slam by Gonce and solo homers by Buscher and Landon Powell. Vanderbilt countered with four in the bottom of the inning on four hits and two Gamecock errors. The Gamecocks added a run in the top of the second but Vanderbilt had its second four run inning to take an 8-7 lead.
South Carolina, which scored in every inning but the fifth, regained the lead for good with two in the top of the third. The closest that Vanderbilt came after that was one run, at 12-11 after six innings.
Yaron Peters hit his 14th home run for South Carolina in the eighth inning and Buscher hit his second of the game and eighth of the season in the same inning. Drew Meyer had four hits in a 22 hit Gamecock attack, including two doubles. Trey Dyson and Kevin Melillo had three hits apiece and Peters, Gonce, Buscher, Powell and Justin Harris had two. Vanderbilt designated hitter Scott Shapiro, who also saw pitching duty, hit two home runs and Tony Mansolino also homered for the Commodores. Mansolino, Shapiro and Chris Broadus had three hits as Vanderbilt collected 14 altogether. Sean Luellwitz had two hits.
SOUTH CAROLINA 612 201 341 – 20-22-4
VANDERBILT 440 012 020 – 13-14-0
Marchbanks, Spigner (3), M. Campbell (6), Wilson (9) and Powell. Faulkner, Maultsby (2), Bennett (3), W. Scott (4), Seus (7), Shapiro (7) and Vanderhoff, W-Spigner (4-0). L-Maultsby (0-2). Save-None. 2B-USC, Meyer 2, Peters, Dyson, Bell, Melillo, Powell, VU, Luellwitz.. HR-USC, Buscher 2(8), Gonce (11), Peters (14), Powell (6), VU, Shapiro 2, Mansolino.
