Baseball Falls to Furman in Midweek Action
Feb. 27, 2018
COLUMBIA – The University of South Carolina baseball team fell to Furman in midweek action, 6-4, on Tuesday night (Feb. 27) at Founders Park.
South Carolina struck first in the bottom of the second inning. Madison Stokes and LT Tolbert started with back-to-back hits and both runners were able to advance on a balk. This led to walks for Jonah Bride and Hunter Taylor, which drove in the first run of the game.
Furman immediately answered in the top of the third inning with two runs of their own on a single from Ben Anderson that ended up scoring Bret Huebner after an error in the outfield. A sacrifice fly from Jake Crawford gave Furman a 2-1 lead.
South Carolina had a quick answer in the bottom of the third with a solo home run by Madison Stokes in his first game back from injury, knotting the score at 2-2.
Carmen Mlodzinski handled business in the fifth and sixth innings, but the bats came alive for Furman in the top of seventh. Landon Kay started it off with a single to center field and then Griffith tripled to left, giving Furman a 4-2 lead. A sacrifice fly from Anderson followed that, putting Furman up three.
South Carolina answered big in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run shot to right field by Carlos Cortes, cutting the Furman lead to 5-4.
The Paladins added insurance in the top of the ninth on an RBI double from Jabari Richards. Mlodzinski took the loss after relieving for Logan Chapman who started the game. Mlodzinski struck out three in 2.1 innings of relief, allowing a hit and two runs. Chapman went four innings in his start, striking out three and allowing three hits and two runs.
QUOTABLE
“We aren’t going to make excuses, that’s not what our program is going to be known for… We just haven’t hit the last 18 innings. Once again, we’ve been crushing the ball the great majority of the year and the last two games we got kept off balance. But I promise you, we will look at what teams are doing right now to attack our hitters and we will make the adjustments. Our guys are very coachable… Sometimes it’s a step back to take two or three forward and that’s exactly what will happen here.” – Head Coach Mark Kingston
GAMECHANGER
Furman plated three runs in the seventh innings, two off the bat of Sims Griffth, who tripled to left.
KEY STAT
Madison Stokes played in his first game since Feb. 18 and was 2-for-4 with a solo home run and two runs scored.
NOTABLE
- Stokes is now hitting .538 with three home runs, six RBI and a 1.462 slugging percentage this season.
- LT Tolbert extended his hit streak to nine games after his single in the third frame.
- Cortes had his 12th career multi-RBI game after his two-run home run in the eighth.
- Tuesday’s attendance was 6,107, bringing the season total to 59,283.
UP NEXT
The Gamecocks face in-state rival Clemson Friday night (March 2) at Founders Park. First pitch is at 7 p.m.
