March 26, 2006
STARKVILLE, Miss. – South Carolina snapped a four-game SEC losing streak and picked up its second conference win Sunday as the Gamecocks defeated the No. 22 Mississippi State Bulldogs 6-2 to close out the series. Christie Hamilton recorded the victory for USC and improved to 11-6, while Stephanie Comeaux took the loss for the Bulldogs and fell to 13-3. The Gamecocks are now 22-12, 2-7 in the SEC.
Chrissy Schoonmaker went 2-for-3 with two RBI and Lisa Longo went 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI. Ashley Smith also went 2-for-4 and Ashton Payne scored two runs and went 1-for-4.
South Carolina received some help from Mississippi State (27-8, 4-2) early on as back-to-back lead off errors, combined with two Gamecock hits, led to three runs and put USC ahead 3-0 in the top of the first inning. All three runs were charged to starter Comeaux who faced two batters before the Bulldogs replaced her with Ragan Blake. Blake entered the game and recorded all three outs for MSU.
USC added two more runs to go up 5-1 in the third on an RBI triple by Longo and an RBI double by Schoonmaker.
The Gamecocks extended its lead in the top of the seventh when Payne scored for the second time in the game. After reaching safely on an error by Callye Williams, Payne scored from second on an RBI single by Smith and the Gamecocks went up 6-2.
The Gamecocks recorded its six runs on nine hits and five MSU errors. The Bulldogs mustered two runs on six hits.
USC will take non-conference break this week and travel to faced Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. on Tuesday.
