April 14, 2010
Charleston, S.C. – Scott Wingo homered twice and drove in three runs and the Gamecocks pounded out nine hits on its way to a 10-4 victory over The Citadel on Wednesday evening at Joe Riley Park in non-conference baseball action. The Gamecocks improve to 26-7 for the season while the loss drops The Citadel to 23-13 for the year. Carolina returns to action on Friday night hosting Ole Miss in the first game of a three-game SEC series. First pitch at Carolina Stadium is 7 p.m. with the game televised live on SportSouth.
Gamecock reliever John Taylor earned the win in relief to improve to 2-1 for the season. He allowed one run, unearned, on one hit in 2.1 innings of work with three strikeouts and one walk. The Citadel starter Austin Pritcher suffered the loss and is now 2-2 for the season. He allowed six runs, one earned, on five hits in 4.2 innings with three strikeouts and two walks allowed.
Matt Simonelli would give The Citadel a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run. He connected on the first pitch from Colby Holmes for his fourth homer of the season. South Carolina answered in the top of the third with a solo home run courtesy of Scott Wingo. The Gamecock second baseman launched a 3-2 pitch over the right field wall for his sixth round tripper of the season tying the game at 1-1.
Trailing 2-1 entering the top of the fifth inning, the Gamecocks would score five runs and chase starting pitcher Austin Pritcher to take a 6-2 lead on the Bulldogs. Evan Marzilli led off with a double and with one out scored as Scott Wingo reached base on a fielding error by Citadel first baseman Justin Mackert. That error would come back to haunt The Citadel as Carolina scored four more of its runs with two outs. Jackie Bradley Jr. tallied a RBI double, Jeffery Jones drove in a pair with a RBI double as well and Nick Ebert tallied a RBI single as the Gamecocks built a four-run cushion. Scott Wingo increased the Gamecock lead to 7-2 in the top of the sixth with a solo homer his second of the game. The last Gamecock player to hit two home runs in one game was Brady Thomas on April 2, 2010 in a 10-2 win over Mississippi State.
After The Citadel scored a run in the bottom of the sixth, the Gamecocks came back with three runs in the top of the eighth inning. Nick Ebert opened the inning with a walk and Adam Matthews set down a sacrifice bunt but would reach base as third baseman David Greene threw wide allowing the runners to advance to second and third respectively. Adrian Morales would drive in Ebert with a RBI single. On the play left fielder William Ladd misplayed the single allowing Matthews to also score from second base. Wingo would eventually drive in his third run of the game with a RBI single that scored Morales. The Citadel scored a single run in the ninth inning as Josh Pless tripled and scored on Matt Reifsnider’s RBI ground out.
South Carolina out-hit The Citadel 9-7 with Ebert 2-for-3 and Wingo 3-for-4 to lead the Gamecocks. Bryan Altman went 2-for-4 with two runs to lead The Citadel.
