April 3, 2004
Nashville, Tenn. – Ryan Mahoney and Davy Gregg paced a 13 hit attack with three hits each Sunday and Aaron Rawl took a shut out into the seventh inning as South Carolina defeated Vanderbilt 6-3 to even a Southeastern Conference baseball series at one game apiece.
The rubber game is scheduled for 1:05 p.m., Sunday at Charles Hawkins Field. South Carolina improved to 22-5 overall, 3-5 in the SEC, while Vanderbilt dropped to 21-6, 4-4. The Commodores lost at home for just the second time in 20 games this season.
Rawl claimed the win to improve his record to 6-1. He allowed 11 hits and lost his shutout in a three run Vanderbilt seventh inning. Through six scoreless innings Rawl was aided by two double plays, one of which he started himself. He struck out six and walked one.
When the first two Vanderbilt hitters singled in the eighth inning Chad Blackwell relieved Rawl and put out the fire to earn his seventh save. Blackwell struck out Tony Mansolino, got Worth Scott on a pop up, and Aaron Garza on a ground ball to shortstop. He gave up a one out infield hit to Ryan Klosterman in the ninth but retired the next two to end the game.
Jensen Lewis suffered his first loss of the season to drop his record to 4-1. In 5 2/3 innings he allowed 12 hits and all six Gamecock runs. He struck out six and walked one.
South Carolina took a 2-0 lead with single runs in the first and fifth innings and batted around for the 17th time this season to plate four runs in the sixth.
In the first inning Michael Campbell was hit by a pitch, moved to third on a double by Steve Pearce and scored on a sacrifice fly by Landon Powell. In the fifth Bryan Triplett singled, moved to second on a sacrifice and scored on a hit by Pearce.
Three of the four Gamecock runs in the sixth scored after there were two outs. Gregg singled and Mahoney doubled him home. Mahoney was out attempting to take third base on the throw to the plate. Tommy King doubled and moved to third on a hit by Hank Parks. Triplett’s double scored King and Campbell drove in the final two runs with a base hit.
With one out in the Vanderbilt seventh inning Aaron Garza and Jonathan Douillard singled. Ryan Klosterman struck out but freshman outfielder Antoan Richardson hit his first career home run to cut the six run South Carolina lead in half. Richardson earlier had a single and a double and led the Vanderbilt hitting with a 3-for-5 day.
Besides the three hits by Gregg and Mahoney, Triplett and Pearce had two hits for South Carolina.
Klosterman, Cesar Nicolas, Mike Baxter and Douillard had two hits for Vanderbilt.
Commodore sophomore second baseman Warner Jones, who took a 32 game hitting streak into the series, was hitless for the second consecutive game. He hit into a double play, was intentionally walked, flied to left field, popped to second base and ended the game with a fielder’s choice ground ball to shortstop. He was hitless in three official bats Friday night, a 6-2 Vanderbilt win, but drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Jones still leads the Southeastern Conference with a .500 average on 55 hits in 110 at bats.
