May 1, 2015

Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Senior first baseman Kyle Martin homered twice including a grand slam and junior left-handed pitcher Jack Wynkoop did not allow an earned run in eight innings of work with 10 strikeouts as South Carolina defeated Auburn 10-1 on Friday night at Carolina Stadium. The Gamecocks improve to 27-19 and 10-12 in the SEC while the loss drops the Tigers to 30-17 and 10-12 in league play.

Wynkoop picked up the win to improve to 7-4 on the year. Wynkoop gave up just one unearned run on eight hits with no walks. Cole Lipscomb suffered the loss for the Tigers and falls to 6-2 on the year. He allowed three runs on five hits in six innings.

Martin went 2-for-2 with two walks, a sacrifice fly, two runs and a career-high seven RBI in the victory. Max Schrock, Elliott Caldwell and Logan Koch added two hits apiece as well. Schrock, Martin, Koch and Gene Cone had two runs apiece also.

Auburn plated its only run of the game in the top of the third on Daniel Robert’s RBI single. The Gamecocks answered with a run in the bottom of the third. Koch opened the frame with a single to right field, advanced on Schrock’s double and scored on Elliott Caldwell’s RBI single.

Martin’s two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth put South Carolina ahead 3-1.

In the bottom of the seventh, Martin and Caldwell drove in a pair of runs. Martin’s sacrifice fly to center scored Jordan Gore, who walked to lead off the inning and Caldwell brought home Max Schrock with a RBI triple.

A five-run eighth inning gave the Gamecocks a 10-1 lead over the Tigers. DC Arendas drew a walk to open the frame and after advancing to second on Connor Bright’s sacrifice bunt, scored on Koch’s RBI single to right-center. With Koch on base, Gene Cone and Schrock reached on a fielder’s choice and walk, respectively, to load the bases. Martin then launched the first pitch he saw from Auburn reliever Sam Mason over the right field wall for his first grand slam of the season.

GAME CHANGER
Kyle Martin’s two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth broke a 1-1 tie.

KEY STAT
Kyle Martin was 2-for-2 on the night with a pair of home runs and drove in a career-high seven runs.

NOTABLES
• Kyle Martin tallied his team-leading 11th home run, 48th RBI of the year and sixth sacrifice fly of the year. He also has a team- high 12 multi-RBI games this season. His seven RBI are the most in a single game since Adam Matthews had eight against College of Charleston on March 22, 2011. This was Martin’s first career game with two homers as well.
• Elliott Caldwell hit his team and SEC-leading eighth triple of the season. He also has a team-high 18 multi-hit games this season.
• Jack Wynkoop earned his 21st career win and this is third straight outing of eight or more innings.
• This is the Gamecocks’ eighth game of the season scoring 10 or more runs.
• Logan Koch’s 2-for-4 day at the plate tied a career-high in hits. It is the fifth time in his career he has had two hits in a game.

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Chad Holbrook
“It was a big win for us. Jack Wynkoop was special once again. I think that’s three outings in a row starting back with Vanderbilt where he’s been just terrific. Our leaders tonight in Wynkoop and (Kyle) Martin and (Max) Schrock and Elliott [Caldwell] really played well. I thought Logan Koch played very well. He blocked a lot of balls in the dirt and we called a lot of balls in the dirt, and Wynkoop threw it there with his breaking ball and Logan did a good job of blocking it, smothering it and throwing them out at first base. It was a good win for us and it’s good to win the first one tonight.”

“It was really special watching Wynkoop pitch, and obviously [Kyle Martin] had a perfect night, 2-for-2 with two walks and seven RBI. That was a special evening. Max [Schrock] played hurt. He sucked it up. He’s got Achilles tendinitis, he can barely walk right now in the locker room, he spent all afternoon at the doctor’s office getting an MRI on his hand. It was negative and he sucked it up and played anyway. It was special to watch him play. I think he didn’t think he could at one point today, and I certainly didn’t. I was very pessimistic with regard to Max earlier this afternoon. I didn’t know if we had lost him for the year. But we got a couple good breaks tonight, and we haven’t had many of those lately, and one of them was the MRI on Max. All in all, it was a good night for us. We’ll need to continue to play well against Auburn because they’re a very good team. Offensively, one through nine they don’t have an out in the lineup. They’re very solid and play consistent baseball, especially 10 of the last 11 games. Their RPI is in the top 20 so they’ve done a great job and hopefully we can play a similar game tomorrow and win a big series against a really good team.”

UP NEXT
The Gamecock and Tigers return to Carolina Stadium for game two of the three-game series on Saturday with first pitch stet for 3:30 p.m. The game will be televised on the SEC Network and can be heard on the Gamecock IMG Network including flagship station, 107.5 FM, “The Game.”