March 12, 2013
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COLUMBIA, S.C. – Fifth ranked South Carolina recorded 14 hits with nine different players tallying at least one hit on the way to a 12-3 victory over USC Upstate on Tuesday night in non-conference action at Carolina Stadium. South Carolina improves to 14-2 on the year while the loss drops USC Upstate to 10-5.
Freshman left-hander Wynkoop pitched 2.2 innings of relief, earning the win and improving to 3-0 on the year. Wynkoop allowed one run on four hits with one walk and struck out one batter. Senior right-hander Patrick Sullivan pitched 3.1 scoreless innings of relief earning his first save of the year. Sullivan allowed three hits, with one walk and three strikeouts. USC Upstate starting pitcher Chris Cox suffered the loss and is now 1-2 on the year. He worked two innings and allowed three runs on six hits with three walks.
The Spartans broke out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. Consecutive walks opened the game for USC Upstate and after Gaither Bumgardner sacrificed the runners into scoring position, Jordan Stampler would score on a sacrifice fly by Luke Weber. Back-to-back two-out singles from Daniel Seeba and Brandon Patterson brought home the second run.
Carolina answered with three runs in the bottom of the second to take a 3-2 lead. Connor Bright opened the frame with a triple and scored when George Iskenderian grounded out to the second baseman. With the Spartans lead cut in half, Dante Rosenberg singled to right field and TJ Costen would then double to left-center. Sean Sullivan pushed the tying run across the plate with a sacrifice fly and Max Schrock brought home Costen with a RBI single.
South Carolina added a run in the bottom of the third. Brison Celek drew a leadoff walk and advance to second on a wild pitch. Celek would score on a RBI single off the bat of Iskenderian.
The Spartans cut the Gamecocks lead to 4-3 in the top of the fourth. Tyler Miller led off the inning with a base hit and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Brody Greer. Miller would then score on a RBI single by Stampler.
Celek came up with a key three-run double in the bottom of the fourth to extend Carolina’s lead to four runs. Costen led off the inning with his second double of the game and back-to-back walks to Joey Pankake and LB Dantzler would load the bases and set the stage for Celek. On a 1-2 count Celek ripped a double to the gap in right center clearing the bases.
The Gamecocks added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to increase their lead to 9-3. A one-out walk to Schrock, followed by a base hit by Pankake put two runners on for Dantzler, who crushed the first pitch to the gap in right-center for his first career triple.
Carolina extended the lead to 12-3 in the seventh inning. Rosenberg was hit by a pitch and a single by Costen set up Schrock, who knocked a 2-1 pitch to deep left-center for a two-run double. Pankake doubled for his third hit of the night and brought home Schrock to give the Gamecocks a nine-run lead.
Pankake went 3-for-3 with a RBI, two runs scored and extended his hitting streak to eight games to lead the Gamecocks at the plate. Costen added three hits with two doubles and three runs scored. Schrock was 2-for-3 with three RBI and a pair of runs scored also. Dantzler drove in two runs as did Iskdenderian.
South Carolina will be back in action Wednesday night hosting Davidson. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. at Carolina Stadium. Live video broadcast is available on the All Access Channel at GamecocksOnline.com. The game can also be heard on WIS, 1320 AM in Columbia.
