May 11, 2013

Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina sophomore left-hander Jordan Montgomery carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and 12th ranked South Carolina scored in five of eight innings at the plate on the way to a 7-1 win over Georgia on Senior Day at Carolina Stadium in front of a sellout crowd of 8,242 fans. South Carolina wins the series and improves to 36-14 and 15-10 in the SEC with Georgia dropping to 18-30 and 5-18 in league play.

Montgomery allowed one run on two hits in seven innings with three walks and two strikeouts. He is now 4-1 on the year. Georgia starter Blake Dieterich suffered the loss and is 2-3 for the season. He allowed five runs on five hits in 4.2 innings with a walk and three strikeouts.

South Carolina broke ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning. After Max Schrock reached base on a two-out walk, he scored on Connor Bright’s double down the left field line. Bright knocked the first pitch he saw from Dieterich past a diving Curt Powell at third base and Schrock made his way home from first to score the first run of the game.

The lead increased to 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Joey Pankake led off with a triple to center, just missing a homer, and scored on Grayson Greiner’s sac fly to left-center.

Four consecutive singles extended the lead to 5-0 in the fifth inning, all four base hits coming with two outs. TJ Costen began the stretch with a base hit to right-center followed by a base hit from Graham Saiko. Costen scored on Chase Vergason’s RBI base hit. Joey Pankake then drove in Costen with a RBI base hit to left field. On the play, Pankake got caught in a rundown between first and second. However, Pankake was able to keep the rundown going long enough for Vergason to score all the way from first and give the Gamecocks a five-run cushion.

In the sixth inning, LB Dantzler walked, advanced to third on Grayson Greiner’s double and scored on Schrock’s sacrifice fly to right field. Dantzler has now reached base in 27 consecutive games.

Both teams traded runs in the seventh inning. A one-out triple by Kyle Farmer for Georgia in the top of the seventh ended Montgomery’s no-hit bid. Jared Walsh drove him in with a sac fly to left field. Carolina answered with an unearned run in the bottom half as two-out fielding error by Curt Powell off a hard grounder off the bat of Joey Pankake scored Vergason.

Senior right-hander Colby Holmes pitched two scoreless innings with just one hit allowed and two strikeouts to close out the victory for Carolina. Pankake and Saiko each went 2-for-4 to lead the Gamecocks at the plate. Farmer was 2-for-3 to lead Georgia.

Before Saturday’s contest, the Gamecocks honored nine seniors (Nolan Belcher, LB Dantzler, Colby Holmes, Dante Rosenberg, Patrick Sullivan, Sean Sullivan, Chase Vergason, Tyler Webb and Adam Westmoreland) in a pregame ceremony.

The series concludes on Sunday with first pitch at 1:30 p.m. The game will be televised live on SportSouth and can be heard on the Gamecock Radio Network from IMG College including flagship station, 107.5 FM, “The Game.”