Feb. 22, 2015

Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Fifth-ranked South Carolina completed the series sweep with a 6-4 victory over Northeastern on Sunday afternoon at Carolina Stadium.

The Gamecocks improve to 6-1 on the season with their sixth-straight win. Northeastern drops to 2-4 on the year.

Carolina produced a season-high 13 hits on the day, including multi-hit performances from freshman Alex Destino (3-for-4), senior Elliott Caldwell (3-for-4), sophomore Jordan Gore (2-for-5) and sophomore Gene Cone (2-for-5). Destino also drove in three runs, all coming on his second home run of the season in the fifth inning.

Freshman reliever Clarke Schmidt (2-0) earned his second win of the season, working 2 1/3 innings and giving up one run and five hits while striking out three.

The Huskies finished the contest with 15 hits, including a 5-for-5 effort from Pat Madigan and two-hit afternoons from Michael Foster and Nolan Lang.

Northeastern took its first lead of the series with a two-run first inning. The Huskies strung together four-consecutive two-out singles, including RBI singles by Nick Fanneron and Lang, to jump out to a 2-0 lead.

The Gamecocks cut Northeastern’s lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the first. Cone led off the inning with a single to right field and later scored on a wild pitch by Northeastern starter James Mulry. Cone has hit safely in all seven games this year and has an eight-game hitting streak dating back to last season.

Carolina took control of the game in the fifth with a five-run outburst. Gore and Caldwell each had a RBI single to give Carolina a 3-2 lead. Destino then highlighted the inning by blasting a three-run home run to right field to extend the Gamecocks lead to 6-2.

The Huskies cut Carolina’s lead to 6-3 in the sixth, as Lang scored on a sacrifice fly by Joey Scambia.

Foster made it a 6-4 ballgame in the ninth as he scored on a wild pitch by Gamecock reliever Taylor Widener. However, Widener bounced back to retire the next three batters to seal the win and pick up his second save of the season.

GAME CHANGER
After the Gamecocks took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on RBI singles by Gore and Caldwell, Destino extended Carolina’s lead to 6-2 by belting a three-run home run to right field.

KEY STAT
Four Gamecocks had multi-hit performances on Sunday, as Destino (3-for-4), Caldwell (3-for-4), Gore (2-for-5) and Cone (2-for-5) combined for 10 of Carolina’s 13 hits.

NOTABLE
• The Gamecocks tallied a season-high 13 hits on the afternoon to finish the series with 36.
• Cone has hit safely in all seven games this year. He has an eight-game hitting streak dating back to last year.
• Junior Max Schrock has drawn a team-high 11 walks on the season.

QUOTABLE
South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook
“It was a good weekend for us, anytime you can sweep an opponent. We played pretty well. I thought we played much better yesterday than we did today. Northeastern battled us until the end. They got 15 hits, they out-hit us, they’re scrappy offensively and we kind of just persevered our way into the third win of the weekend. We did some good things, but we left some runs out there that will come back and get us in conference play or later down the road if we don’t shore that up. There were a couple things that were disappointing that we need to continue to improve upon, but all in all, a 6-4 win, a third win of the weekend, coming after 18 innings yesterday, we’ll take it and we’ll move on and get ready for a game against Davidson this week.”

UP NEXT
The Gamecocks will return to Carolina Stadium on Tuesday for a matchup with Davidson. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.