March 12, 2008
Columbia, S.C. – James Darnell hit his first career grand slam homer and Scott Wingo added his first career homer in a Gamecock uniform as fifth ranked South Carolina bounced back with an 11-5 win over Yale on Wednesday evening at Sarge Frye Field. Carolina improves to 10-3 on the year while the loss drops Yale to 3-6 this season. The Gamecocks head into conference play and will begin the SEC with a three-game series at nationally ranked Vanderbilt on Friday night.
Carolina relief pitcher Sean Wideberg entered the game in the fourth inning and tied a career-high for innings pitched, going four scoreless innings and allowing just one hit while striking out a career-high eight to pick up the victory. He is now 1-0 on the year. Yale reliever Chris Walsh lasted only 0.1 innings and suffered the loss. He is 0-1 this season. Yale used nine pitchers on the evening.
The Gamecocks finished with 11 hits to Yale’s nine on the evening with Darnell, Kyle Enders and Harley Lail all contributing with two hits on the day. Reese Havens had a single as well to extend his hitting streak to 13 games on the year. Carolina has also now hit a home run in 12 of 13 games. Darnell also finished with a career-high five RBI.
The Gamecocks took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Whit Merrifield drew a one-out walk and scored from first base on a RBI double courtesy of Justin Smoak. For Smoak it was his sixth double of the season. Yale tied the game 1-1 in the second inning as Jake Doyle walked to lead off the frame and scored on T. Larsson-Danforth’s RBI double. Yale would then go ahead 2-1 in the third inning scoring an unearned run off of Gamecock starter Sam Dyson. South Carolina tied it up at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning as Harley Lail would steal second base and score off Andrew Crisp’s RBI single to center field.
With the game even at two apiece, Carolina grabbed the momentum in the bottom of the fifth inning with four runs against the Bulldogs. Wingo drilled the first pitch he saw from Chris Walsh for a homer to right field to put the Gamecocks on top 3-2. One-out walks to Whit Merrifield and Justin Smoak, followed by a single from Kyle Enders loaded the bases for Darnell. Darnell would walk to score Merrifield with Harley Lail adding a sacrifice fly RBI and DeAngelo Mack a RBI base hit to give Carolina a four-run cushion.
That cushion would grow to nine runs in the sixth inning with Darnell’s grand slam the key hit for Carolina. With two outs and a 3-1 count, Darnell ripped a fastball from John Henry Davis over the left centerfield wall for his first home run of the year. Carolina would add one more run in the inning to take an 11-2 lead as Scott Wingo was hit by a pitch for the 11th time in the season to score Lail. Wingo’s 11 hit by pitches ties the USC Freshman Record held by Mac White (1991). Yale would score three more times before Carolina closed out the victory.
