May 1, 2002
Spartanburg, SC – Trey Dyson and Kevin Melillo each homered and Blake Taylor earned his 13th save of the season as the fourth-ranked South Carolina baseball team held on to defeat Wofford 5-4, Wednesday evening in front of 2,491 fans at Duncan Park. South Carolina is now 35-10 on the season and will next play on Friday evening at 7 p.m. vs. Ole Miss at Sarge Frye Field. Freshman LHP Matt Campbell earned his second win of the season, in a predetermined split, improving his record to 2-2. Campbell went two and one-third innings allowing only one run on three hits, while striking out two batters. Junior LHP Casey Kline took the loss for Wofford, moving his record to 2-5. Kline pitched eight innings allowing five runs on 11 hits.
With Carolina up 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth, Wofford loaded the bases with one out. Brian Casey knocked a hard hit grounder down the third base line, nabbed by Carolina third baseman Brian Buscher. Buscher bounced up stepped on third and threw to first base to get the double play and preserve a 5-4 Gamecock victory.
Steve Thomas batted 2-for-5 with a double and one RBI. Drew Meyer also batted 3-for-5 and scored a run for the Gamecocks. Thomas entered tonight tied with for the lead in the SEC with doubles. Thomas is now tied for 9th on Carolina’s list for doubles in a season, four short of the season record set by Dave Smyth (24) in 1986. Senior RHP Chris Spigner also threw three and one-third innings of no-hit ball in relief of Campbell for the Gamecocks.
Carolina opened the scoring in the top of the second inning. After singles by Garris Gonce and Dyson, Justin Harris hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Gonce and give the Gamecocks a 1-0 lead. Wofford came back in the bottom of the inning to knot the game at one as Kyle Raulinaitis hit an RBI single to right field to score Chris Cotugno. USC regained the lead in the top of the third inning. Meyer led off with a double down the right field line and Thomas knocked a single up the middle to score Meyer and put the Gamecocks on top 2-1. South Carolina increased its lead to 3-1 in the fourth inning as Dyson led off the inning with a solo home run to right field, his 13th of the season. Carolina went up three runs in the top of the sixth as Melillo ripped his third home run of the season to right field giving the Gamecocks a 4-1 lead. Gonce added a RBI groundout in the seventh inning to score Yaron Peters, moving the Gamecock lead to 5-1.
Wofford struck back in the bottom half of the seventh inning scoring three runs off of Carolina on four straight hits. A RBI double by Steve Casey edged the Terriers three runs closer and Strat Stavrou added a RBI double to right centerfield to score Casey, moving the lead to 5-3. Carbone also hit a RBI single to score Stavrou and the Terriers found themselves down one run, 5-4.
