June 4, 2006
Box Score | Photo Gallery
Charlottesville, Va. – Evansville scored 12 times in the bottom of the third inning with five hits, and took advantage of six walks, four errors and a hit batter on its way to a 15-5 victory over South Carolina in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional. The win sets up a final game between the Gamecocks and Purple Aces on Monday evening to determine the winner of the regional. First pitch for the championship game is set for 6 pm ET. The winner advances to a super regional to meet the winner of tomorrow’s Florida State-Georgia matchup.
Evansville starting pitcher Mitch Prout would earn the win as he went 6.2 innings and allowed five runs on eight hits. He is 2-1 on the year. Carolina starting pitcher Forrest Beverly suffered the loss and is now 6-3 this season. He went 2.1 innings and allowed eight runs, two earned, on four hits with one strikeout and two walks.
The game started off on a positive note for the Gamecocks as Phil Disher picked up where he left off from last night’s game and put the Gamecocks ahead early in the first inning. With a pair of runners on base and two outs, Disher launched a 2-2 fastball for a homer over the left center wall and the scoreboard to give Carolina a 3-0 lead. The homer was his fourth of the season and his fourth in the last seven games.
Things however came unglued for Carolina in the third inning as Evansville batted around twice with 18 batters to the plate and scored 12 times to take a nine-run lead. The inning started with Forrest Beverly issuing a one-out walk to Kyle Smith. Evansville’s Gabe Bauer would put runners on the corners then with a single to the gap in right center. A botched play for USC would give the Purple Aces their first when Jim Viscomi would reach base on a fielder’s choice bunt. On the play, catcher Trent Kline fielded the ball cleanly but threw high of second base into center field as he tried to force the runner out allowing Smith to score. A pair of RBI singles followed as Kern Watts and Kasey Wahl tied the game for Evansville. Beverly then loaded the bases as Kirk Bacsu drew a one-out walk. With the bases loaded, a slow hopper courtesy of the bat of Pat Timulty was misplayed by Beverly to allow another Evansville run. The inning would then implode as Robbie Minor hit a two-run single to knock Beverly out of the game and Bauer collected a two-out RBI single off of reliever Jeff Jeffords to score two more runs. A rain delay was called at 7:04 pm before the inning actually ended. The game would pick up at 8:12 pm with Evansville scoring the ninth run of the game as Jeffords walked Watts. Wahl would then reach base on a fielding error to shortstop Reese Havens that scored Bauer for the 10th run. Jeffords issued another walk as Evansville scored to Kirk Bacsu as Evansville scored its 11th run and would then score the 12th run of the inning on a passed ball.
Andrew Crisp would get USC back on the scoreboard in the seventh inning as he launched a solo homer off Prout to cut the deficit to eight runs. The Gamecocks would score one more in the frame as Cheyne Hurst hit a sacrifice fly RBI to center scoring Chris Brown.
Evansville got three back in the seventh inning though with a two-out RBI double from Timulty followed by a two-run RBI single by Jeff Zelenovich. Despite the three runs, USC reliever Brandon Todd came in and was effective out of the bullpen for the Gamecocks. Todd worked a season-high 4.1 innings and allowed three runs on seven hits.
Watts was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBI to lead Evansville at that plate. Bauer went 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI and Minor added two hits and four RBI. Trent Kline, Neil Giesler and Andrew Crisp each tallied two hits for Carolina at the plate.
Monday night’s game can be heard live on the Gamecock Radio Network including 103.1 FM and 1320 AM in Columbia. Mike Morgan and Tom Price call the action.
