June 1, 2007

Final Stats | Quotes | Notes

Columbia, S.C. – Justin Smoak belted a pair of homers and Reese Havens drove in three runs with two hits as top-seed South Carolina beat fourth-seeded Wofford, 9-1, in game two of the 2007 NCAA Columbia Baseball Regional before 4,821 at Sarge Frye Field on Friday.

South Carolina improved to 43-18 overall and advances to take on Charlotte in the winner’s bracket game at 7:00 on Saturday. The Terriers, who fell to 30-32, play N.C. State in an elimination contest at 2:00. The 49ers knocked off the Wolfpack, 6-3, in the regional opener.

Both teams scored in the first inning. Wofford’s Mike Gilmartin led off the game with a walk and eventually scored on John Brandt’s two-out single to right for a 1-0 Terriers lead.

Smoak’s towering solo homer to right with two outs in the bottom of the first tied the game at 1-all.

Havens’ two-out, two-run double to right in the second inning drove in Trent Kline and Steven Reinhold to give South Carolina the lead for good at 3-1.

USC extended its lead to 6-1 in the third inning on an RBI single by Andrew Crisp and Jon Willard’s two-run single that plated Smoak and Kline.

Willard reached on an error with one out in seventh, moved to second on a grounder by Reinhold and scored on Havens’ single to left for a 7-1 Gamecocks advantage.

Smoaks’ second homer of the game, his 20th on the season, was a line shot down the right field line that gave South Carolina a 9-1 lead in the eighth inning. Smoak, who enjoyed his first multiple homer game of the season, also walked three times, scored three runs and drove in three.

Harris Honeycutt (8-5) picked up the win surrendering only one run on five hits over seven innings of work. Honeycutt walked four and struck out seven. Ben Austin (11-6) suffered the loss allowing six runs on eight hits with six strikeouts over the first five innings.

James Darnell, Willard and Kline added two hits each to pace South Carolina’s 12-hit attack. Wofford got two hits from Brandt.