March 11, 2015

Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Seventh-ranked South Carolina belted out a season-high 15 hits en route to a 13-3 victory over Penn State on Wednesday night at Carolina Stadium. The Gamecocks improve to 14-3 on the season while the loss drops the Nittany Lions to 1-10.

The Gamecocks got on the board early plating three runs in the first two innings. After a pair of singles from Gene Cone and Kyle Martin and a walk to Max Schrock loaded the bases in the bottom of the first, Elliott Caldwell drew another walk to score Cone. Alex Destino followed with a RBI single to right field that brought home Schrock. Hunter Taylor opened the second inning with a base hit, stole second and scored on Kyle Martin’s sacrifice fly.

Schrock kept the hot bat alive in the fourth inning as he crushed a three-run homer over the right field wall, giving South Carolina a 6-0 lead.

Penn State pushed across a pair of runs on four consecutive singles in the top of the fifth to cut the Gamecocks’ lead to 6-2.

The Gamecocks increased the lead to 7-2 in the bottom of the fifth. Jordan Gore led off with a base hit to center field, stole second and score on a fielding error by Penn State shortstop Jim Haley.

The Gamecocks tallied five runs in the sixth inning to take a 12-2 lead over the Nittany Lions. Back-to-back singles from Schrock and Martin followed by a walk to Caldwell set the stage for Destino, who roped a bases-clearing double to left-center.

Penn State added one run in the seventh inning on a RBI single. Martin accounted for the final run for the Gamecocks with a solo home run to right-center.

Junior right-hander Preston Johnson earned his second win of the year with 2.1 innings of relief work. He is 2-0 for the season. Right-hander Reed Scott pitched four scoreless innings in his first start of the year and struck out four batters. John Parke added 0.2 innings of relief with Matthew Vogel striking out three batters in an inning of work and Tyler Johnson striking out both batters he faced. Canaan Cropper recorded the final out. Penn State starter Jordan Donmoyer suffered the loss and is 0-1 for the season. He allowed three runs on five hits in two innings of work.

GAME CHANGER
The Gamecocks scored two runs in the first inning on the way to a 13-3 win.

KEY STAT
Six different player recorded multi-hit games: Max Schrock (3), Kyle Martin (3), Alex Destino (3), Jordan Gore (2), and Hunter Taylor (2)

NOTABLES
• Gene Cone has reached base safely in all 17 games this season.
• Max Schrock second home run of the season and now has 12 RBIs on the season. Schrock went 3-for-3 with three runs scored. He tied a season-high with three RBI and three hits in the game. He also tallied his team-leading 17th walk and fifth stolen base of the season.
• Prior to Penn State scoring in the fifth inning, the Gamecocks had not allowed an earned run in 44 consecutive innings.
• Alex Destino matched a career-high four RBI and three hits in the game. His four RBI tied for the most by a Gamecock in game this season.
• Eight of nine position starters reached base.
• Hunter Taylor tied his career-high with two hits in the game.
• The Gamecocks 13 runs and 15 hits are season highs.
• Kyle Martin tallied his third home run and 18th RBI of the season.

QUOTABLE
South Carolina Head Coach Chad Holbrook
It’s kind of been a long time coming to have a game like that offensively. Gene (Cone) got it started in the first inning with a hit and we had a great inning there and only had two runs to show for it. The double play kind of kept the game close there for the early part of the game, but any time you can get Max (Schrock), Max had three hits, obviously K-Mart (Kyle Martin) swung the bat very well, and Alex (Destino), those three guys are legit middle-of-the-lineup type guys and tonight they showed it. Cone and (Jordan) Gore kind of set the table for them and it was nice to see Hunter Taylor get a couple hits too.

Reed (Scott) pitched the ball very well, Preston (Johnson) got hit a little bit but he threw strikes in there and we played defense behind him and the other guys threw the ball extremely well. It was good to see Matt Vogel throw the ball the way he threw it. He punched out the side there and had great stuff on his fastball. He was very, very aggressive. It was a great night for us, and hopefully that puts us in a good frame of mind heading into the weekend. I look forward to having a good workout tomorrow and then SEC starts this weekend and we all know what that entails. All in all, a great night.

UP NEXT
The Gamecocks open SEC play hosting Kentucky in a three-game series at Carolina Stadium. First pitch for the opener on Friday is set for 7 pm. All three games will broadcast on SEC Network + and can be heard on the Gamecock IMG Network including flagship station, 107.5 FM, “The Game.”