April 4, 2007
Columbia, S.C. – Arik Hempy pitched five scoreless innings and behind a five-run sixth inning South Carolina defeated Furman 10-0 on Wednesday evening at Sarge Frye Field. Carolina improves to 24-6 while the loss drops the Paladins to 8-20 on the year. Wednesday’s game marked the fifth shutout of the year for Carolina and the 11th time this season that USC has scored at least 10 runs. The Gamecocks return to action this weekend for a three-game series at Florida beginning on Friday night with first pitch set for 7:30 pm. Sunday’s game will be televised on ESPN and will start at 1 pm.
Hempy had his longest stint of the year and limited the Paladins to just two hits while striking out a season-high five batters and walking just two. He threw 77 pitches on the evening. Hempy is now 2-0 on the year. Furman starter Nick Hollstegge took the loss and is 0-4 on the year. He lasted only 2.2 innings and allowed one run on two hits.
The Gamecocks went ahead 1-0 in the second inning. Andrew Crisp walked to lead off the inning and went to second base on the play on a passed ball to Furman catcher Nicholas Karow. Crisp would advance to third on Drew Martin’s groundout to the right side and scored on a RBI sacrifice fly from Travis Jones.
The game remained close at 1-0 until the sixth inning when Carolina scored five more runs against the Paladins. Martin got things stared with a leadoff walk and on the hit and run advanced to third base on Jones’ single. Reese Havens continued the offensive push with a double to score Martin that was followed up by a double from Harley Lail to score both Jones and Havens. The Gamecock hits continued to come with James Darnell adding a single. Trent Kline would score the Gamecocks’ next run with a sacrifice fly and Justin Smoak would add a two-run double to extend his hitting streak to 11 games as Carolina broke ahead 6-0.
South Carolina increased the lead to 8-0 in the seventh inning with two more runs as Kline collected an RBI double and scored on a passed ball, the second of the night issued to Karow behind the plate. South Carolina extended it to 10-0 in the eighth inning as Jones added his own RBI double followed by an RBI single from Havens.
Havens finished 3-for-5 for the Gamecocks with Lail and Jones also adding two hits. South Carolina finished the game with a 12-4 hit advantage including five doubles.
