March 21, 2008
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Columbia, S.C. – Kyle Enders hit a home run for the second consecutive game and Phil Disher added his fifth home run of the year as South Carolina defeated Mississippi State 9-1 in the first of a three-game SEC series on Friday evening at Sarge Frye Field. Carolina improves to 13-5 and 2-2 in the SEC while the loss drops Mississippi State to 9-10 and 1-3 in the conference. Both teams meet in game two of the series on Saturday afternoon at 4 pm.
Carolina starting pitcher Mike Cisco took a shutout into the eighth inning before yielding a run and picked up the victory for the Gamecocks. He is 4-0 on the year. Cisco allowed one run on five hits in 7.2 innings of work while striking out five and just walked one batter. Mississippi State starter Jesse Carver went five innings and allowed seven runs on nine hits to suffer the loss. He is 1-1 on the year. He struck out four and walked four in the game.
The Gamecocks tallied 13 hits on the evening including three apiece from Disher and Whit Merrifield. Enders and Andrew Crisp had two hits as well for the Gamecocks. Crisp owns an 11-game hitting streak.
South Carolina broke ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the first inning scoring all three runs with two outs. Whit Merrifield drew a walk and stole second base. Justin Smoak delivered with two outs then as he drove a 3-2 pitch from Carver for a single to left field to score Merrifield. Enders then followed with a home run to left for his third round tripper of the season. That lead extended to 4-0 in the second inning as the Gamecocks scored on the second home run of the night. Phil Disher hit a 1-0 pitch from Carver for a solo homer to left field, his fifth of the season.
A pair of two-out base hits accounted for two more runs in the fourth inning as Merrifield and James Darnell connected on RBI singles to score Justin Hopper and Reese Havens. Disher recorded his second RBI of the night in the fifth inning with a single to score Crisp. After a MSU run in the top of the eighth, the Gamecocks scored twice in the bottom half on a sacrifice fly from Smoak and a single from Crisp. Smoak, Enders and Disher all finished with two RBI.
Gamecock reliever Parker Bangs closed out the game for the Gamecocks with 1.1 scoreless innings of work with a pair of strikeouts. Grant Hogue led MSU with three of the seven Bulldog hits on the day including a RBI single.
Saturday’s game will be available on the Gamecock Radio Network with live video broadcast on gamecocksonline.com. Mike Morgan and Tommy Moody have the call. Live gametracker stats are also available.
