Feb. 23, 2009

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina opened the season with a series sweep of Duquesne. The Gamecocks earned victories of 13-0, 8-4 and 6-0 vs. the Dukes to start the season off with a 3-0 record

South Carolina Baseball Notebook

Record: 3-0
SEC: 0-0
Home: 3-0
Away: 0-0

This Week: 3-0
2/21/09 – Vs. Duquesne (W, 13-0)
2/22/09 – Vs. Duquesne (W, 8-4)
2/23/09 – Vs. Duquesne (W, 6-0)

NOTES:
South Carolina opened the season with a series sweep of Duquesne … The Gamecocks earned victories of 13-0, 8-4 and 6-0 vs. the Dukes to start the season off with a 3-0 record … South Carolina is now 19-0 in all-time series history vs. Duquesne … South Carolina’s opening weekend at Carolina Stadium didn’t disappoint with the inaugural opener attendance at the new complex at 8,153 … South Carolina’s average attendance for the first weekend was 6,980.

Carolina recorded two shutouts in the opening series marking the first time since the 2004 season that the Gamecocks have tallied a pair of shutouts in the opening weekend series … In that series, Carolina defeated Charleston Southern 38-0 and 3-0 for two shutouts … The last time South Carolina recorded two shutouts in a series was in February of 2006 with 7-0 and 2-0 victories over Radford.

South Carolina’s pitching staff had a strong first weekend allowing just four runs on 10 hits in 27 innings for a 1.33 ERA … 11 Gamecock pitchers had action and struck out 31 Duquesne batters … Sophomore RHP Sam Dyson had the Opening Day start and didn’t disappoint with five scoreless innings allowing just one hit and striking out six to earn the win … He is now 9-0 in his career at Carolina … Junior RHP Blake Cooper was equally effective with six scoreless frames … He allowed just two hits and struck out seven to earn the victory on Monday vs. Duquesne … Freshman LHP Adam Westmoreland made his Gamecock debut in Saturday’s opener and went three scoreless with no hits allowed and just one walk while striking out four … Senior LHP Alex Farotto picked up the first save of the season for Carolina as he worked 2.1 scoreless with two strikeouts in Sunday’s 8-4 win … It was his second save of his career … Freshman LHP Nolan Belcher started Sunday’s game and allowed one run on two hits in four innings with four strikeouts … Also pitching scoreless innings for the Gamecocks out of the pen were sophomore RHP Parker Bangs, junior RHP Jordan Propst, freshman RHP Matt Price and junior LHP Grimes Medlin … Senior RHP Curtis Johnson returned to action in Sunday’s win and earned the victory after two innings of work.

Junior OF DeAngelo Mack was involved in a lot of the offensive action in the first weekend as he went 3-for-8 (.375) at the plate with a pair of homers, five runs scored and six RBI … Mack homered in both Saturday and Monday’s wins, both were three-run homers … He also walked six times on the opening weekend … Freshman OF Jackie Bradley, Jr. had a stellar first career weekend as he hit .333 (5-for-15) with a pair of doubles, a home run and four RBI as well as four runs scored … Bradley, Jr. had three extra base hits, two doubles and a homer in the 8-4 win over the Dukes … Junior college transfers Justin Dalles and Jeffery Jones hit safely in all three games this weekend … Dalles hit .429 (3-for-7) with a homer, double and three RBI … Jones hit .300 (3-for-10) and scored three runs.

Carolina’s defense was solid the first weekend with just one error for a .991 fielding percentage … The team hit .313 (30-for-96) on the weekend with a .439 on-base percentage.

14 of the Gamecocks’ 16 newcomers made their debuts this weekend (Nolan Belcher, Jackie Bradley, Jr., Justin Dalles, Nick Ebert, Bobby Haney, Jeffery Jones, Adam Matthews, Grimes Medlin, Matt Price, Jordan Propst, Casey Rihn, Michael Roth, Brady Thomas, Adam Westmoreland).

South Carolina returns to action this weekend with a home and home series with the Clemson Tigers … Carolina will travel to Clemson for the Saturday game, first pitch at Doug Kingsmore Stadium is 2 p.m. … Sunday’s home game at Carolina Stadium will start at 1:30 p.m … This weekend’s games vs. Clemson will be the earliest that Carolina has played Clemson since the fourth game of the 1952 season.

Next Week:
2/28/09 – at Clemson (2 p.m.)
3/1/09 – vs. Clemson (1:30 p.m.)