South Carolina Baseball Notebook

Feb. 22, 2010

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina opened the season with a series sweep of Duquesne. The Gamecocks earned victories of 10-3, 13-3 and 5-3 vs. the Dukes to start the season off with a 3-0 record. South Carolina is now 22-0 in all-time series history vs. Duquesne. It was a strong weekend of attendance at Carolina Stadium with the Gamecocks totaling 21216 for three games for an average of 7,072 … Saturday’s game was the top attendance with 7,926 fans at the game.

No. 10 – Baseball America
No. 13 – Rivals.com
No. 21 – NCBWA
No. 28 – Collegiate Baseball

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

This Week: 3-0
2/19/09 – Vs. Duquesne (W, 10-3)
2/20/09 – Vs. Duquesne (W, 13-3)
2/21/09 – Vs. Duquesne (W, 5-3)

NOTES:
South Carolina’s leading run producer on opening weekend was Jeffery Jones with three homers and 10 RBI in a sweep of Duquesne … He tallied first career multi-homer game including a grand slam and a career-high five RBI in Friday’s 10-3 win over Duquesne … Added a homer, double and four RBI in 13-3 win over the Dukes … Also drove in a run in Sunday’s 5-3 victory … Finished the weekend with 14 total bases and a 1.167 slugging percentage.

Freshman third baseman Christian Walker opened up his career at South Carolina with strong weekend at the plate, batting .571 (8-for-14) with a pair of homers, a double, five runs scored and seven RBI … Finished the weekend with a 1.071 slugging percentage and tallied three multi-hit games in the series … A 4-for-5 day at the plate with a homer, double and a RBI as well in 13-3 win vs. Duquesne on Saturday … Led the Gamecocks in hitting for the first weekend of play … Walker and Jones combined for 17 of the team’s 27 RBI over the weekend.

South Carolina was stellar on the mound as well with the pitching staff finishing opening weekend with a 3.00 ERA as well as 39 strikeouts in 27 innings pitched.

Opening day starter Blake Cooper earned a win after five innings allowing two runs on three hits with seven strikeouts in the 10-3 victory … He now has 22 career victories and is two short of Bret Baynham (24; 1978-81) for 13th on the USC all-time list … Cooper, Nolan Belcher, Matt Price and Colby Holmes combined for 16 strikeouts on Opening Day, just two short of the school single-game record.

Junior right-hander Sam Dyson was equally effective in his start as he pitched 3.2 hitless innings in a predetermined split and allowed just one walk while striking out six of the 12 batters he faced … Dyson, Jay Brown, Jimmy Revan, Michael Roth, Ethan Carter and Patrick Sullivan struck out 14 batters in the 13-3 win over Duquesne.

Sophomore left-hander Steven Neff picked up his first career win on Sunday with 1.2 scoreless innings of relief.

Junior outfielder Whit Merrifield recorded a hit in all three games this weekend to extend a hitting streak that started in the previous season to 17 games … Merrifield was 4-for-11 in the series with six runs scored and an on-base percentage of .500.

Senior catcher Kyle Enders also hit safely in three games as did sophomore outfielder Adam Matthews … Enders was 4-for-8 at the plate (.500.

South Carolina tied a single-game record for times hit by pitch, as five Gamecocks were hit, the fourth time in school history that it has happened … 11 Gamecock newcomers made their Carolina debuts this weekend (Robert Beary, Ethan Carter, Brison Celek, Colby Holmes, Evan Marzilli, Jose Mata, Adrian Morales, Jimmy Revan, John Taylor, Christian Walker, Tyler Webb).