Oct. 3, 2011

by Ryan Pederson
Media Relations Student Assistant

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina softball team earned its first win of the fall with a 5-4 victory over Spartanburg Methodist on Friday night. Senior third baseman Evan Childs won the game for the Garnet and Black with her sixth-inning, two-RBI triple.

The Gamecocks started the sixth-inning rally with back-to-back singles by junior Hannah Milks and freshman Kristen Struett. After a beautiful sacrifice from sophomore Codee Yeske, Childs laced a 2-1 pitch into the left-center gap, scoring Milks and Struett to put the Gamecocks on top for the first time in the game.

Spartanburg Methodist got on the board in the third, getting a two-RBI triple from Brooke Barnhill before she scored on Lauren Eastwood’s RBI single. Barnhill plated Amanda Hayes and Hannah Holbrook, who reached on a leadoff walk and an error, respectively.

South Carolina answered in the bottom of the frame when junior catcher Shelby Gonzales drove the 2-2 pitch screaming over the left field wall to tie the game. That scored junior Samie Garcia and senior Lauren Lackey after the duo started the frame with a hit and a reached on error.

The Pioneers answered back on Amanda Hayes’s well-executed squeeze bunt that scored KC Shue.

Kiersten White gained the win for the Gamecocks with two perfect innings of relief that included two strikeouts and no balls getting out of the infield.

Pioneer pitcher Bailey Smith scattered 11 hits on the night and took the loss. The Gamecocks had a runner on base in every inning but only managed to score in two of the frames.

Milks and senior Kaitlin Westfall joined Childs with two hits on the night. Sophomore Dana Hathorn added a double.

The Gamecocks will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7 at Beckham Field, where they will take on the National Pro Fastpitch All-Stars. The teams will sign autographs after the contest that features former Olympic medal winners and collegiate All-Americans facing off against South Carolina’s squad.