March 18, 2008
Charleston, S.C. – James Darnell tied a South Carolina single-game record for home runs with three and Kyle Enders and Reese Havens added home runs as well as the Gamecock offense exploded for 19 hits in a 13-1 win over College of Charleston on Tuesday evening at Patriots Point. Carolina improves to 12-5 on the year while the loss drops College of Charleston to 13-7 this season. South Carolina returns home for a non-conference game vs. USC-Upstate on Wednesday evening with first pitch set for 7 pm at Sarge Frye Field.
The Gamecock offense saw all nine starters tally at least one hit with Darnell leading the way with a career-high five hits on the evening. He became the 11th player in Gamecock history to put together three homers in one game and the first since Landon Powell in May of 2004 at Georgia. Andrew Crisp added three hits with Reese Havens, Whit Merrifield and Harley Lail coming away with two apiece as well.
Carolina starting pitcher Nick Godwin pitched brilliantly for the Gamecocks as he limited the Cougars to just one run on two hits while striking out six and walking just two. He is 2-2 on the year. Carolina reliever Brandon Todd pitched a perfect ninth inning to close out the game for the Gamecocks.
Carolina broke ahead of College of Charleston 3-0 in the second inning. After a single from Andrew Crisp and a walk to DeAngelo Mack, the Gamecocks scored their first run on Phil Disher’s RBI single to left field. Reese Havens and James Darnell would each add RBI singles as the Gamecocks ran out to a three-run lead.
That lead increased to 4-0 in the third inning as Crisp reached on his second hit of the evening and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Mack. College of Charleston came back with a run in the bottom of the third inning but the Gamecocks were able to limit the damage as Austin Morgan grounded into a 4-6-3 double play with only one run crossing the plate, scoring Jeremie Tice. Carolina got the run back in the top of the fourth inning as Reese Havens scored off a RBI base hit from Darnell, his second of the game.
After a scoreless fifth inning the Gamecocks would go on top 7-1 in the sixth inning on a pair of homers from Darnell and Kyle Enders. Darnell launched a 2-1 pitch from Charleston starter Casey Lucchese over the left centerfield wall and Enders followed against Cougars reliever Nick Osterman with a solo home run to about the same spot in left center. It was Darnell’s third home run of the year as well as Enders. Lucchese would suffer the loss and is now 2-1 this year. He went 5.1 innings and allowed six runs on 12 hits.
Havens’ team-leading fifth home run of the season was a two-run shot in the seventh inning and the Gamecocks added another run in the eighth inning before closing out the game with three runs in the ninth inning. Merrifield tallied a RBI single that was followed up by Darnell’s two-run homer to put the Gamecocks on top comfortably by 12 runs.
