March 13, 2016
COLUMBIA, S.C. ââ’¬” Freshman right-hander Adam Hill pitched 5.1 scoreless innings to earn his fourth win of the year and combined with relievers Tyler Johnson and Josh Reagan for seven-hit shutout as 16th ranked South Carolina defeated Charleston Southern 2-0 to sweep a three-game series. The Gamecocks improve to 15-2 with Charleston Southern dropping to 8-8 on the year.
Hill is now 4-0 on the year. He allowed just four hits and one walk while striking out eight batters. Reagan picked up his sixth save of the season with two scoreless innings of relief. Charleston Southern starter Jon Piriz suffered the loss and is 0-2 for the season. He allowed two runs on five hits in 5.2 innings with three walks and a strikeout.
South Carolina scored both runs in the fourth inning. Dom Thompson-Williams led off with a double and scored on TJ Hopkins’ one-out sacrifice fly to right field. Matt Williams crushed a 1-0 pitch over the right field wall with two outs for his first career home run to give the Gamecocks the two-run cushion.
Charleston Southern threatened in the sixth inning and loaded the bases with one out, but Johnson induced a 4-6-3 double play to keep the Gamecocks ahead by two runs.
GAME CHANGER
The two-run fourth inning was all the Gamecocks needed to earn the victory.
KEY STAT
Hill, Johnson and Reagan limited Charleston Southern to just seven singles for the second shutout of the weekend and the third of the season.
NOTABLES
Dom Thompson-Williams has reached base in all 17 games this year. Alex Destino doubled to extend his hitting streak to nine games.
South Carolina did not commit an error the entire weekend and have played six consecutive games without an error as well as eight of the last nine contests.
Adam Hill is 4-0 with a 0.47 ERA in four starts with 32 strikeouts to just three walks in 19.1 innings. Opponents are batting .185 against him.
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Chad Holbrook
First off, I just want to say Charleston Southern played extremely well, extremely hard. We heard before the series they were a very good, very solid team and they had a chance to do very well in the Big South. I can see why that was the report on those guys. They played the game hard and they played the game the right way. They pitched, they threw strikes and for the most part, especially on Saturday and Sunday, they played good defense. I’m happy with my team. We could have executed a little better in a couple of spots offensively but we hit some balls on the nose that were caught. We played great defense. Matt Williams had a big swing of the bat there to give us a little bit of seperation. We didn’t do great offensively but we did enough. I think we swung the bats a little bit better than what the stat line indicates, but with that being said it was a hard fought last two games and we were fortunate to come out on top. I feel good about the way my team played.
UP NEXT
The Gamecocks head to the Upstate for a Tuesday night contest vs. USC Upstate at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. First pitch is 7 p.m. The game can be heard on the Gamecock IMG Network including flagship station, 107.5 FM, “The Game.”
