March 21, 2007
Spartanburg, S.C. – South Carolina scored at least one run in seven of nine innings at the plate and behind a 14-hit performance defeated Wofford 13-1 on Wednesday evening in front of a record crowd of 2,514 fans at Russell C. King Field on the campus of Wofford University. Carolina improves to 19-3 on the year while the loss drops Wofford to 16-7 this season.
Carolina’s 14 hits on the evening including three hits from Justin Smoak and two apiece from Adam Crisp, James Darnell, Robbie Grinestaff and Reese Havens. Crisp, Darnell and Grinestaff each hit home runs for the Gamecocks.
Carolina announced a predetermined split before the game. Starting pitcher Arik Hempy went three scoreless innings and allowed just one hit with one walk while striking out three batters to pick up his first win of the season. Wednesday night’s game was Hempy’s second appearance and start of the season for the Gamecocks. Hempy combined with five other Gamecock pitchers to limit the Terriers to five hits on the evening. Wofford starter Jesse Cole lasted only two innings and suffered the loss. He is 0-1 on the year.
South Carolina went ahead 1-0 in the first inning without a hit in the frame. Harley Lail led off the game with a walk, stole second base and advanced to third on the play as Wofford catcher Keith Munns overthrew the bag. Lail would score on Trent Kline’s RBI sacrifice fly to right field. That lead increased to 3-0 in the second inning as an Andrew Crisp one-out single was followed up by a home run by Robbie Grinestaff to center field, his second of the season.
After a scoreless third inning, the Gamecocks would go ahead 4-0 in the fourth inning as Grinestaff doubled to left, advanced to third on a fly-out and scored on a wild pitch by Terrier reliever Charles Vartanian. Wofford got the run back in the bottom half of the inning on a one-out solo home run by Brandon Waring.
The fifth inning featured another run for Carolina as Kline and Justin Smoak each singled to open the inning were sacrificed with Andrew Crisp following with an RBI groundout to score Kline. South Carolina then extended the lead to 7-1 in the sixth inning on a two-run homer from James Darnell, his sixth of the season. Darnell drilled an 0-1 pitch from Wofford reliever Adam Kearney over the right centerfield wall to give the Gamecocks a six-run cushion.
Carolina batted around in the seventh inning and scored four runs to build an 11-1 edge on the Terriers. Reese Havens had a two-run single with two outs and the bases loaded, followed up by RBI hits from Lail and Darnell. That lead then moved to 13-1 in the eighth inning as Adam Crisp delivered with a two-run homer to left center, his first career home run in a Gamecock uniform. It was a return of sorts for Crisp and five other Gamecocks (Jordan Costner, Nick Godwin, Jeff Jeffords, Harley Lail and Drew Martin, who played at Spartanburg Methodist Junior College before transferring to Carolina.
South Carolina returns to SEC action this weekend with a three-game series at Mississippi State. All three games will be televised on Sports South (Columbia – Time Warner Cable channel 21) with Dave Neal and Larry Conley on the call. The game can also be heard on-line at uscsports.com and on the Gamecock Radio Network with Mike Morgan and Tom Price calling the action. The network includes Columbia flagship stations 103.1 FM and 1320 AM. Friday’s game is set for 7:35 ET, Saturday’s game is at 4 pm ET and Sunday’s series finale is scheduled for 2:30 pm ET.
